


Winds of Change

by TheDragonChronicle



Category: Kung Fu Panda (Movies)
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Gen, Intrigue, Mongolia, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2020-06-25 03:36:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 63,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19737523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDragonChronicle/pseuds/TheDragonChronicle
Summary: A seemingly simple mission takes a downward spiral as a Kung Fu artifact ends up in the hands of another, leading Tigress, Crane, and Po to the windswept plains of Mongolia.





	1. Signs and Portents

Mongolia: _The Land of the Eternal Blue Sky_. Rightfully feared, equally misunderstood; the birthplace of conquerors. Since the beginning of civilization itself, the emperors and lords of China had fought ceaselessly with the nomads from the other side of the Gobi Desert. And for as long as anyone could remember, whatever side of the Great Wall one was on denoted Chinese from outlander; citizen from barbarian. _China_ was civilization, _China_ was the whole of the world. And yet, for all this posturing, those "filthy barbarians" had humbled the Divine Land more than once.

Despite all its open sky and natural majesty, the steppe never had what the valleys to the south did in food and goods. In times of peace, the populace of China would have food and opulence in equal measure, while those to the north would not. The ways of the world had never been fair; but what one does not have, can always be taken by force.

What they lacked in fertile soil and governmental structure, the Mongols had always made up for with their knack for brutal warfare - their skill with the bow and arrow was the stuff of legends. War had become their lifeblood, but it was not the only thing that constituted Mongol life. Many nomads respected the old gods, and the concept of honor was not beyond them. But from such a rugged life, every steppe child grew up understanding one thing above all else: that happiness is not earned, bought, or shared; it is _taken_.

_That is the way it has always been, and so it shall always be._

This was what the Khan had concluded about his homeland. It was always true that the more things seem to change, the more things stay the same. For even now, his advisers clustered about his throne room and brought before him the same problems that his father, and his father before him had been charged with.

"The clans are at each other's throats!"

 _A shocking turn of events_.

"The people are starving!"

_What else is new?_

"The Khanate hasn't the funding to supply the army!"

_We spent all the damn money on food already._

"My Khan?"

He looked down from his throne to see his head minister, an undersized desert jackal, looking at him questioningly.

"Enough of this!" He could feel his claws dig into the wood of the throne, his mind being overwhelmed by a constant bombardment of asinine requests and bad news.

The Khan, a snow leopard, could be considered unusually well-built and athletic for a ruler - but this was Mongolia. In this country, it was survival of the fittest from top to bottom; he had defeated two younger brothers just to earn the title of sole ruler. Unifying the Khanate clans was a much more grueling task that took him nearly five years, and he was not about to let his efforts fall to ruin. It could have been even harder though, he supposed, for his father had also sired a bastard son in China. He had always feared what would have happened if the orphan had discovered his parentage, but in all likelihood the poor lad never amounted to much.

"I have heard quite enough of this shit for one day. Away with you!" _I need to hear some good news for once._ "Summon my shaman!"

"At once, my Khan."

A much deeper voice had answered him, not the pathetic squeal of the ministers. It had come from one of the only people he truly trusted, his military adviser and chief bodyguard, Ganbataar.

_'Steel Hero.' Now there's a name. And better yet, he lives up to it, too._

The warrior in question, a powerful leopard with a stature that rivaled that of the Khan himself, exited abruptly. He returned moments later with an ancient-looking argali sheep that took his time approaching the Khan's throne, as he was nearly blind and barely able to stand. He wore ragged clothing that looked easily as old, as well as a prominent headdress of condor feathers that made him look taller than he ought to.

Without a word, he began to set up his instruments of divination, as he knew the Khan wanted to see a future of some kind, as usual.

The sheep cracked a smile.

_Tengri forbid, he demands something even moderately challenging for once…_

As he awaited the shaman, the Khan was again drowned in the innermost workings of his mind.

_The time for having standing armies is becoming increasingly limited. My country is starving. I can still hold the clan alliances together without invading our common enemy, but it will cost me the total conquest of China that I have dreamed of since I was a cub._

But there were other things to consider. Venturing to expand the nation's borders carried with it the inherent risks of destabilizing everything he had already fought so hard for. The Mongolian people suffered through famine and infighting, but at least they still ruled themselves, projecting their power and influence to the far places of the world.

The diaspora of peoples - the Ilkhans and the raiders of the Golden Horde alike - still respected the dictate of the one true ruler of the Mongols. An unsuccessful invasion would leave nothing for his son to inherit, as the nation would surely plunge headlong into another cycle of bloodshed and chaos.

_Should I start a conflict I cannot win? Should I disband the armies and leave the war-making, the glory, to my progeny?_

But long ago, the leopard ruler had learned that such things are not to be left to the inadequacies of others.

"Your request, my lord Khan?"

It clearly pained the aged sheep to talk, his voice hoarse and weak.

"A future, Subutai; I wish to conquer China once and for all. Can it be done?"

The sheep did not respond directly, but instead let out a grunt that sounded more like a wheeze. The leopard watched eagerly as the argali set to work fervently mixing several liquids into a basin, resulting in a milky white pool. Plucking a black feather from his headdress, he held it out - only for it to disintegrate into the bowl's contents. The ashen residue polluted the pure white, balancing it to a grey.

"As you have requested, a future."

And with that, the sheep ignited the basin by means the onlookers could only guess at, and a hush fell over the whole court. Seemingly every lantern and candle in the place had been extinguished, the only light coming from the otherworldly concoction, and the glowing eyes of the feline impatiently awaiting an answer from his throne.

The smoke that had previously hung throughout the hall was now violently rushing toward the center, creating symbols and shapes suspended in the air, the flickering of the flames below illuminating them ominously. What was appearing before the onlookers could only be interpreted by the diviner, as it appeared to be utter nonsense to an untrained eye.

After minutes that seemed like hours, with every breath of air seemingly being sucked out of the room, the hoary old goat spoke at last.

"Your desire to supersede the fame of your grandfather is a worthy goal."

At once the Khan's eyes lit up with excitement, only to be extinguished by the shaman's next words.

"But it is pure folly. You cannot surpass the unsurpassable."

The imposing feline now felt utterly powerless more so than any time before in his life. That was the way of fate, it seemed it could never be undone. He didn't get to ponder this very long, however, as the levitating signs quickly shifted once more.

"Though that does not mean all of China is beyond your reach." the shaman said, almost as if surprised to hear his own words.

The Khan nearly jumped once more, but this time he controlled himself, eager instead to hear the full divination before reaching conclusions.

"As you know, every Mongolian will follow his Khan to the death against our ancient enemies, but it will not be enough to conquer China without the aid of a warrior of unbelievable power."

At this the Khan got up from his throne and stood to his full height, showing off his muscular build, but Subutai knew what he was implying with this action and cut him off.

"While no one here questions your prowess on the battlefield, my Lord Khan…" The sheep made sure to choose his words carefully. "I'm afraid you are not the mighty warrior I am referring to."

The Khan was evidently upset at the revelation, but he was intrigued nonetheless, and swallowed his pride a bit quicker than usual.

"Who then? Where might I find this great warrior?"

The argali merely smiled and chuckled.

"The question is not who and where, but _when_. This warrior shall come to you."

_When? I am the Khan of Mongolia – I wait for nothing!_

The Khan just stood there dumbfounded as the shaman extinguished his strange concoction, and the lights returned to the hall just as quickly as they had left. The sheep picked up the basin and gestured excitedly to the leopard to come closer to look inside.

"Behold your warrior, my Khan."

Rather unsure of himself, the feline surrendered his paw to the milky grey liquid inside and was surprised to pull something out that rested elegantly in his large paw.

_Wait… is this… a flower? Yes… yes it is. A lotus by the look of it, though not like any I have ever seen or heard about. Where is the color?_

It was an immaculate specimen, brandishing huge outstretched petals, but this was overshadowed by its unnatural color pattern. As the petals progressed inward, there was an alternating black and white theme, leaving it uncannily monochromatic. Just holding the thing gave its bearer a sinking, unnatural sensation.

The Khan was understandably speechless for some time after this. When he did speak, it was in an annoyed tone, as if he had somehow been the recipient of a cheap joke.

"This is a _flower_ , not a _warrior_. How is a pathetic little blossom going to level cities and destroy armies?"

His past fear of the Khan gone, the goat now looked amused at his lord's confusion. He spoke to the leopard in strained, yet defiant grunts as he began to hobble out of the throne room.

"Hmph. You look but you do not see, and therefore you cannot understand. All will be revealed in time."

Dejected, the leopard tossed the lotus to the ground, where an eager attendant proceeded to pick it up and dust it off. Seeing the divination at an end, Ganbataar approached his lord and bowed subserviently, if a bit urgently.

"I might remind you, my Khan, that we still have an important decision at hand. The forces of Mongolia await your command. What message should we give to the clan chiefs?"

In his confusion at the shaman's words, he had almost forgotten about the matter he had been most intensely debating within himself all morning. The clan chiefs had expressed their grievances over the lack of payment and rations for the army for many months, and their ultimatum had been clear.

He had until today to decide: the Mongol hordes would invade, or they would disband. The rapidly shortening list of neighbors weak enough to attack had cast a pall of doubt over the former, and the chieftains were certainly expecting to return to their respective vassal states. But now, he had a sign from the gods - a vision of triumph. The choice was obvious, then.

_I'm not that old yet. It will be my name that history remembers, not my son's. I will take my happiness from this cruel world._

He could see the whole room holding its breath around him, and he knew his next words were of enormous consequence. After composing himself briefly, he answered his general at last.

"Assemble the armies. We're invading China."

_The more things change, the more they stay the same._


	2. A Simple Mission

The Dragon Warrior watched as another bolt of lightning struck the mountains beyond. Sitting patiently, he gazed at the darkened horizon from the rear courtyard of the Jade Palace. The storm had been encroaching in on the Valley of Peace slowly over the past hour, and it was almost ready to unleash its fury upon the pristine terrain below. He marveled at the spectacle of it all: the heavy clouds seeping over the peaks in the distance, the strikes of white fire lashing the landscape like a whip. A sudden gust of wind unsettled his fur, and announced that the moment he had been waiting for was nearly here. Making sure to maintain a composed Tai Chi stance, the panda gently placed the jade staff he received from Master Oogway in the Spirit Realm on the ground.

His eyes closed, Po breathed in as deep as his lungs would allow and readied himself for his inner peace technique with a slow drag of his right paw pad. His entire body was loose and relaxed, but he ensured that every slight movement was fully intentional and controlled.

_That's it... focus..._

And then, without even having to look, he saw it: the first drop of rain plummeting toward him. Its presence was more a feeling then something he could see, and he knew exactly when and where it would fall. His figure recoiled ever so slightly, and his arm extended up to meet it in stride, halting its descent with his paw.

_Gotcha._

His limbs working in tandem, Po moved the drop towards the core of his form with an immaculate grace about his motion. The sky had opened now, and a cascading deluge engulfed him. There were countless drops of rain torrenting against his fur, but he did not feel them; he was fixated inseparably on a single orb out of an infinite stillicide of water. He passed the drop between his arms, slowly working it toward the ground. Not even the vicious lightning strikes nor the roar of thunder nearby could rouse him from the trance. He was making sure to take his time, as he derived a unique pleasure from this part of the technique. In this perfect moment there was no discord; there was only tranquility. There was no right or wrong; only the pure balance between them. The panda could now see every facet of his own being coalesced at once - visions of friends and family, successes and hardships, failures and great triumphs. Po had come to learn that inner peace was in fact a mirror, not of the body but of the soul; it was the truest way of understanding oneself.

At last, Po surrendered the drop of liquid to the growing stream around him and the visions ceased. As he opened his eyes once more, he took in the undeniable power of nature. Despite the hail of water slicking down the entirety of his fur, he was sporting an ample smile. Every time he practiced this technique he was reminded of how he had defeated Lord Shen, saving China and Kung Fu itself in the process. Even after thwarting the Beast of Vengeance, he still considered it his greatest triumph.

Po regretted that with his more recent mastery of Chi, he had less and less chances to bring himself to this ultimate spiritual balance. As he mulled over this last thought, it finally dawned on him that he was now hopelessly drenched, the fur on the undersides of his arms hanging down as it absorbed the water. He retrieved his staff and made a quick break for the shelter of the Hall of Warriors... or whatever was left of it; the repairs were coming along slowly after Kai had taken out most of the first level of the palace.

The only light in the entire room came from the candles surrounding the Moon Pool at the far end of the half-collapsed hall. As Po approached the illuminated area through the ruins, he became aware of the fact that a red panda had been watching him with amusement; he had seen how hastily Po had barged in and comically tripped over debris several times to escape the onslaught of water.

Leaving a trail of puddles in his wake, the soaked bear still gave his master a proper greeting with a bow.

"Good morning, Master Shifu."

Shifu returned his bow and motioned for him to come closer to the candles to dry off a little. The red panda had seemingly found the only place in the room where rain wasn't trickling in, the sound of rushing water audible all around them. Po noticed that his master was sitting on the fallen golden dragon head that had once held the Dragon Scroll in its jaws; the metal that comprised it was starting to oxidize slightly as the months of exposure to the elements wore on. Gathered around the area were the surviving artifacts of the Hall of Warriors.

"Practicing Inner Peace in a lightning storm again?"

"What? No, I was jus-" Shifu's devilish smirk had revealed itself in full force. "Okay, yeah. You got me."

The red panda smiled and raised his brows at the bear's sudden confession. Po was an unbelievably bad liar.

"Oh, nothing to be ashamed of, Dragon Warrior. That is, at least, until a lightning strike turns you into an ash pile."

The two exchanged a little chuckle. It reminded Po how much better life had been at the Jade Palace since Shifu had lightened up some; he did have to admit it wasn't a great idea to keep going out into lightning storms, though - it would be a very un-poetic way to top off.

"It's just that we haven't been doing anything interesting around here lately, so I've been kind of bored."

Shifu's face grew serious once more.

" _Bored?_ The reconstruction of the Jade Palace is ongoing, and you still have to continue your meditations on Chi..."

"Well... yeah." Po looked down at the ground, brushing the floor with his footpaw in muted annoyance. "That's not really what I meant."

The red panda exhaled audibly, but retained an even temperament.

"Ah, I see. You are longing for duties of the 'punching and kicking' variety?"

Po nodded quickly.

"In that regard, I'm afraid I cannot help you... but there is _this._ " he said, revealing a message scroll from behind his back and tossing it nonchalantly at the Dragon Warrior.

Po snagged it from the air with ease, and was predictably ecstatic at the news of a potential task beyond the typical monotony of life at the palace. The Jade Palace Masters hadn't had a real mission for some time now, not since the arrival of Kai. Of course, there was always the usual bandit raid to keep him and his fellow masters occupied, but they were almost always small-time pushovers that caved instantly to the masters' skill in combat; in fact, most of the time they would just give up without a fight. While it was great that the local lowlifes knew just how amazing you were at handing out ass-kickings, this was significantly less fun.

"Yes! Finally!" He pumped the air with his fist. "It's zombies, isn't it? Punching dead guys is the best!" he mused, beginning to unravel the scroll.

"It is not zombies."

"Ah, then it's The Crustacean Menace of Zhejiang!"

"It is not… whatever that is… either."

As he read through the first part of the written message with the usual pleasantries and formalities, the giant panda proceeded to start rambling about increasingly obscure and ridiculous enemy hordes, much to his master's annoyance. But when he had reached the actually relevant part of the letter, Po gazed up again at Shifu, looking altogether deflated.

"That's it?" he asked, internally hoping he had been given the wrong scroll.

"The task, Dragon Warrior, is actually quite simple."

Po gazed off to the side in disappointment.

"That's the problem - it's just a delivery errand."

The red panda master folded his arms behind him, smirking once more. "Is it now? You may wish to finish reading before reaching such conclusions."

Po perked up once more with his usual insatiable curiosity, delving right back in to finish the letter at once. It took only another few moments before he knew what his master had been alluding to.

"Wait - the Dagger of Deng-Wa? But I thought-" Po started, mind racing with purported legends of the mysterious weapon.

"It has been located at last." Shifu answered, cutting him off. "Someone in the city of Xiangyang has put it up for sale to the highest bidder. The Master's Council believes that if these rumors are true, the best place for such a weapon is under our protection, for safekeeping."

Po nodded in agreement, quickly moving the open scroll in his paws to avoid a falling drop of water.

"I want you to find the current holder of the relic, compensate them handsomely, and return with it so we may keep it safe here in the Hall of Warriors." the red panda finished, looking at the destruction around him with a sigh, as he was reminded how much things had changed of late.

"Awesome!" Po exclaimed, disrupting his thoughtfulness. "But… Master Shifu, isn't that thing kind of, you know, _dangerous_? Isn't that what the evil Deng-Wa warlords used to nearly conquer all of China?"

"Yes, that's the one; the dagger has had many users over the ages. I suspect Master Oogway had a record of the relic's true origin, but as you can see, the Jade Palace Library… no longer exists. The weapon's unique power has not been seen on the battlefield in over two centuries."

"How does the power work?"

"No one really knows. It has the reputation of making its wielder nigh invincible; I suspect it has some kind of Chi enhancement, but it's just a hunch. The only thing most scholars are sure of is that the dagger has a unique design: the blade is unusually curved, like a snake."

"That's like, _super cool_ …" He saw Shifu's brow furrow at him. "…in a frightening, evil-y, bad kind of way, of course!" Po had caught his tongue, chuckling nervously.

"The weapon has never once been used for good, so 'cool' is hardly the best term for it."

Shifu leaped atop of Oogway's staff and looked the bear eye to eye, annotating each word with his features to make sure he was perfectly clear.

"You should take every precaution when transporting such an artifact. In the wrong hands, the weapon would cause complete chaos."

"Yes, yes - okay!" Po exclaimed, raising his paws in understanding. It seemed to persuade Shifu to back down.

"The journey to Xiangyang will be a long one. You may select two of the Five to go with you; the rest will remain here with me to maintain the peace and continue reconstruction efforts."

While the Dragon Warrior had been at least momentarily subdued by his master's proximity and serious demeanor, when hearing the last part he became elated once more.

"Alright! Road trip!" Shifu started to frown again. "I won't let you down Master Shifu! One seriously spooky shiv coming right up!"

And with that, the masters exchanged bows and Po started out of the hall, the storm outside having lightened up enough for him to make it to the barracks unscathed.

"I have every faith in you Dragon Warrior." Shifu said, too quiet for Po to hear, as the panda was already outside.

_Gods, I hope he takes Tigress with him. She's the only one I trust to carry that thing._

Po didn't exactly have the best record with Kung Fu artifacts. The red panda glanced over at the particularly unlucky Urn of Whispering Warriors with a pronounced cringe.


	3. Feathers and Stripes

Crane was gaining a greater sense of pride with each brushstroke. His current artistic composition was turning out even better than he had envisioned, and suddenly the last few weeks of dedicated precision weren't looking like such a wasted effort anymore. Putting on the finishing touches, he stepped back to survey the entire piece, twirling his brush aimlessly between the talons of his outstretched leg.

The painting was of the Furious Five, naturally; but it was his first attempt at adding Po - the one who had been requesting the piece for a year - that didn't go horribly wrong. He had figured the best way to depict them all was to frame the art such that the viewer would see them up close and from below. The background had been easy enough - it was a deep striking red, divided by shooting rays of white light. Perpetually self-conscious, he had obscured his own features for the most part with his typical rice hat. At Po's request he had also given the panda similar headwear and a golden robe which, he had to admit, looked kind of badass.

With the Five each masterfully portrayed and huddled in defensive stances around the Dragon Warrior, the piece was near-perfect. Every second of its production had been pure catharsis for the bird, as artmaking was largely his only mode of emotional release. All it needed now was a fitting title which - ironically enough - was the part Crane always struggled with the most. Though he enjoyed calligraphy, he was no poet.

He started pacing up and down his living quarters, stopping to open the sliding door as the smell of the paint was by now quite strong. He was, frustratingly, still at a loss for an appropriate epithet for the artwork. Then he thought of Po, and it gave him an idea.

_What's that thing Po's saying all the time? My fist hungers for battle? No… it's justice… My Fist Hungers for Justice. That's it._

He chose to write the title in strikingly exquisite calligraphy on the work itself, enclosing it perfectly between the paws of Tigress, which were outstretched in her famous Double Palm Strike. Taking a step back, he couldn't help but smile. It was a masterpiece; Po had been right from the start once again.

The avian had always looked at the foolhardy panda with admiration… or was it envy? Po just always seemed to be so carefree, hardly ever uptight or stressed, and when he was you could see it right away because the guy wore his emotions so openly; Crane secretly wished he could be more happy-go-lucky like the bear style master. When he wasn't being so reserved, the avian always became shy and nervous something fierce. He sometimes wondered if things had worked out better between himself and Mei Ling, maybe he wouldn't be this way. He found a great deal of meaning in his dedication to Kung Fu and his mastery of art, but despite what he would try to make himself believe, Crane didn't want to be alone forever.

The more he dwelled on these thoughts, the more he realized he had in common with Tigress. Sure, he wasn't an unfun hard-ass, but both of them tended to be distant, and had a degree of social illiteracy. When he thought about the feline's greatest weakness, it had always been the same as his: it was emotional. He knew all too well his own internal volatility, but with the tiger master, it was sheer process of elimination: she was invulnerable to everything else. Her famously short temper was evidence enough, but Crane's suspicions had been further confirmed when he'd witnessed Tigress' utterly crushed and defeated state when she'd thought Shen's weapon had killed Po.

The bird master owed his disillusion to being constantly haunted by past failures; but the obvious source of Tigress' was her relationship to Shifu. The dynamic was defined by the tiger's desperate need for validation from her adoptive father - that much was clear, not to mention that matters had clearly been complicated by being denied the Dragon Scroll. Even now, with Shifu having achieved inner peace, the tiger master still radiated that icy stoicism. She never engaged in idle conversation, and if she did talk to the Five, it was almost exclusively about Kung Fu and how they needed to be training more.

However, the Dragon Warrior remained an exception to the rule, for reasons that continued to elude Crane. But then again, Po had an uncanny way of changing people, and not even the perpetually-apathetic Tigress was immune to this. The panda was no-doubt oblivious to the fact that Tigress only became mildly personable around him; and for the briefest moment, Crane wondered if their relationship constituted something… _more_. He shook it off abruptly.

_Now that was certainly an unsettling thought…_

But the fact remained that Po, and Po alone, was bestowed the gracious honor of knowing she had a personality.

 _If I were ever to say such things aloud…_ He shuddered at what the consequences might be. That tiger was downright lethal, and had the temper to match.

Crane paced over to the Tigress in his painting, which he had given a full smile - in real life the rarest of sights. Then again, perhaps he hadn't given her the credit she deserves. What if fostering a sibling-like relationship with Po was her own way of trying to combat the shortcomings of her formative years? Now he just had himself confused; that was the other thing the panda was capable of. No matter what, who he was and everything he touched seemed to always become infinitely more confusing.

_He truly is Oogway's successor._

The heavy steps emanating from the hallway outside announced the arrival of the panda in question. Before Crane could even turn all the way around to greet him, Po had already dropped to his knees, nearly tearing up as he gazed upon the masterstroke of artistic genius before him. He was at a total loss for words, and at first all Crane could muster for a response was his usual nervous chuckle. Struggling desperately to forget all that he had just been contemplating, he greeted Po with a respectful bow, as he was indeed quite proud of his work.

"Crane, it's... perfect!"

"Well, I wouldn't say that... You really like it, huh?"

Po nodded.

"You were right about the hat, by the way; it looks quite good on you." he added, smiling.

Crane wouldn't make eye contact with the panda master, bashfully gazing downward as he spoke instead; he hated unnecessary attention, which Po's rather noisy praise would be sure to attract before long.

Po walked up to the painting, looking closely at all the details, and trying to emulate everyone's individual poses and facial expressions; Crane just reveled once more at how the panda really was living his dream. In all honesty, so was he, but he couldn't remember a time where being at the Jade Palace had made him half as fulfilled as Po appeared each and every day. Maybe being a Kung Fu warrior was enough for him; perhaps Kung Fu truly was his greatest desire in life.

Po at last seemed to snap out of his gushing over the painting and looked to back to its creator.

"I almost forgot what I came to tell you."

"Yes?" Crane raised a brow.

The panda cleared his throat before speaking in a jokingly authoritative tone.

"I want you, Master Crane, to join me on an epic quest to liberate a priceless relic of awesomeness from the crippling jaws of anonymous ownership!" Po stopped for dramatic effect, one paw raised in a shaking fist. "Are you willing to join me in the harrowing pursuit of the Dagger of Deng-Wa?"

"So… we're going shopping for Master Shifu's relic collection, then?" Crane asked through a wry smile, trying not to laugh at his new master's excessiveness.

"Yeah, pretty much." Po said as he dropped the act; this was a much less awesome way of putting it.

"Okay, care to give any more details about where we're going, or this… Dagger of Den-what now?"

Po proceeded to tell Crane - probably with too much detail - everything Shifu had told him about the mystical weapon and its location.

"All right, I'm in. When do the two of us leave?"

"First thing tomorrow. And you mean the _three_ of us." The panda started for the door.

"Three?"

"Yes. I'm asking Tigress to go with us." And just as quickly as he had arrived, Po was already down the hall and gone.

Crane didn't know how he felt about this journey now. For a moment there he was kind of looking forward to the simplicity of a one-on-one mission with Po. Regrettably, he was the only member of the Five that had never had the pleasure of going on an outlandish quest with just the Dragon Warrior. He had sat through more than a few stories from Mantis and Monkey about the crazy stuff Po has done when he isn't under the scrutinizing eyes of Shifu and Tigress. Having the tiger master with them was no doubt an asset, as she was a force of nature in combat, but that also meant it would be a lot less easygoing trip. She was a born leader, and that seemed to be a benefit to their team's effectiveness just as often as it was a detriment to their inner peace. Either way, he felt honored to be selected to travel with the Dragon Warrior, no matter how menial the task at hand might be, and he set about preparing for a journey.

* * *

Po knew finding the master of tiger style would be the easy part; talking her into this glorified shopping trip was another matter entirely. Even though it was everyone's day off from Po's innocently moronic training regimen, he knew she would still be trying to hone her skills. She didn't have family to go visit like Viper, she didn't have an art like Crane, and she wasn't one for relaxing around town like Monkey or Mantis. Hell, the word _relaxation_ had been purged from her vocabulary long ago; it was just a synonym for _weakness_ in her eyes. Her Kung Fu was like the prized sword of a master smith: it could only ever be made so sharp, but it was taken to the grindstone every day nonetheless. He had tried to introduce her to the idea that there was more to life than Kung Fu, but it was a work in progress.

_A hopeless work in progress._

Po was greeted by the smell of shattered wood as he entered the training hall, meaning it had been a particularly busy day for the palace servants who had to replace the wooden warriors. Tan Xiang incense and freshly-split redwood; that was the smell of Tigress, and for most people she met, the very essence of their defeat. It was actually a rather ataractic scent, perhaps meant to lull her enemies into a false aura of calm. Rather conveniently, the striped feline appeared to have just finished for the day and was walking toward where Po had entered.

"Hey Tigress, you wouldn't mind one more fight, would you?"

Po had figured out a while back the best way to talk to Tigress was to spar with her at the same time. Straight-up discussion usually became awkward, as she didn't respond positively to Po's antics and fanboy-ism the way the rest of the masters did.

"And risk missing another chance to defeat the Dragon Warrior? Of course I don't mind." she responded assuredly, brushing tiny shards of wood from her tunic.

That confident look she gave him; in all their countless sparring sessions, Po still hadn't managed to humble it.

"You mind if we take it outside?"

She shrugged her shoulders and led the way down to the walled courtyard outside. Po couldn't help but notice the feline's tail flicking back and forth blithely as they walked down the steps. She was indeed elated to face a live opponent after a whole day of destroying hopelessly unrealistic targets; it took a live spar to actually get her blood pumping. The warriors reached the courtyard and prepared to fight.

As they faced each other down, Po looked over to see the magnificent sunset that was now coating the Jade Mountain in a lush gold tint. He thought about how far his life has come since he had crashed into the very same spot a few short years ago. He looked over at the tiger he was about to fight, the gold landscape blending perfectly to her similarly colored attire and highlighting its crimson floral patterns. She was clearly less interested in the surroundings, eyes already scanning the panda's form for weaknesses.

As Tigress assumed her ready stance, poising her tail up behind her in a precise curve, she noticed Po had an unusually wide smile for someone about to get pummeled into the ground.

"Po, are you ready?"

"Ha! I was born rea-" The first hit threw him back a fair distance.

 _Some things never change_.

The tiger master was not holding back, but that was to be expected. Po was on his heels, as he had most certainly _not_ been ready. He was parrying strikes as quick as he could, trying to match her lightning pace. She really was pulling out all the stops: front leg sweeps, fist and palm strikes, acrobatic midair attacks. All the while he was trying to figure out why he could never defeat Tigress when he could best someone like Tai Lung, who was of the same hard-style form of Kung Fu and significantly stronger. He had _kind of_ beaten her when training to fight Kai by using the Wuxi Finger Hold technique, but she had also _kind of_ beaten him by breaking the hold, something he didn't even know was possible.

He tried to favor defense a little, and it seemed to earn him some openings. But as usual, the very ground itself seemed tilted in her favor. Between heavy breaths, he started to propose the mission to her.

"So, yeah. There's this dagger, see." He dodged a roundhouse that would have probably shattered his jaw.

"Yes?"

"And, uh, Shifu wants us to go get it for the Hall of Warriors." His palm strike was countered with a redirection.

"Intriguing, truly intriguing." she voiced mockingly, delivering agile jabs at his torso.

"And we have to- oof! Wasn't ready for that one." The panda quickly regained his balance before continuing, much to the tiger's amusement. "We have to go to this town north of the Yangtze and I was wondering if you would join me and Crane."

He tried to go for one of her weak spots, namely the underarms and ears, but she intercepted his fist with an ease that humbled him. In Po's desperate attempt to talk while fighting, he had been rather careless. In a single motion, she launched him completely overhead and brought him to the ground in a body-slam that knocked the wind clear out of his lungs.

_Tigress is super hardcore and all, but would it kill her to go easy on me - just once? Feels like I'm about to cough up a lung…_

Struggling to catch his breath, he looked upside down at Tigress, who was smiling wide enough to make the white of her pointed fangs visible; a rare sight indeed. She gave him a bowing salute, palm-in-fist.

"I would be honored to join you, Dragon Warrior."

_Tan Xiang incense and freshly-split redwood. The smell of defeat._


	4. The Vermilion Phoenix

A month of travel. The three masters had gradually left the deep gorges of their native Li River Valley, and started to enter central China through Sichuan in the direction of the Qin Mountains. Crossing the Yangtze had provided its own unique challenges, but they'd been lucky enough to find a ferry to take them across. Every day the foliage around them became progressively thinner, the morning air becoming less humid and instead somewhat brisk.

The two males had hated the tight schedule they were keeping, but they had to admit it was the only way to get to Xiangyang that didn't involve months of slow-moving caravan routes. Tigress, of course, had known this from the outset; she was a leader, all-too aware of her duty to make the unpopular decisions and keep them moving, just as she always had with the Five.

Crane was fine with the breakneck pace, since he could just fly over any difficult terrain, but he could only assume how hard the journey would be for Po at this speed. For the first few days, the panda was resolute, doing his best to not show any sign of fatigue or hunger. But it was soon apparent that his anatomy just wasn't suited for such non-stop travel as he was lagging constantly. Despite his humble protests, the avian took pity on him and began flying him over anything that involved going uphill. In retrospect, he had done it just as much to keep Tigress off their asses as it had been for pity.

As far as the social interaction was concerned, it was about what the avian had expected. He ended up having Po talking to him most of the time, and that had its ups and downs like anything else. While the panda had an annoying fascination with what it had been like when Crane was a "Jombie," he spent just as much time gushing about how much respect he had for the bird's skill, his unique redirecting style of Kung Fu, and his artistic savvy.

Tigress, on the other hand, was just as distant physically as she was socially. She was often quietly trekking well ahead of them, never for an instant growing complacent in her search for threats. Could they really fault her though? She was, after all, carrying something like a hundred-thousand wén in valuables strapped to her back; the immense payment Master Shifu had granted them to purchase the relic. Still, most of the time the tiger made it seem like she wasn't even there.

One night amidst their makeshift camp after a particularly boring day of travel, Crane gave in to Po's ceaseless curiosity.

"It wasn't a great experience, as you can imagine. Ever had the nightmare where you can't move your limbs, helpless to stop something terrible?"

"Yeah. Those are like… the worst ones."

Nearby, Tigress rolled over in her sleep with a grunt, annoyed that they were going to start talking again; her tail even flicked at them in a primitive "shut up" motion.

"Well, that's what it was like. You still feel the world around you, see through your own eyes… but you can't control your body at all. Everything you do is what they want you to do and everything you see they see too; that is, whoever is controlling you. They can dictate your every move before you can even think to fight against it. It feels like every bone in your body has turned to ice… you can even feel their presence in your head from time to time."

"Eww. Creepy." Po shuddered.

"Oh, and by the way, while we're on the subject…" The bird scratched at his chest with the talons of his feet, averting his gaze to the surrounding treeline. "Did you have two of your panda friends crush me in midair as part of your plan to defeat Kai?"

Po smiled guiltily. "Heh… maybe?"

"Yeah, just so you know, that hurt like a bitch."

"Hey, I said I was sorry!" Po said, laughing; his remorse was short lived as he recalled the event in question. "But I gotta say, that was pretty hilarious!"

The bird couldn't ever stay upset at the panda for long, and he sighed, flashing a grin.

"The view of me stuck in the ground beak-first like a chopstick must've been pretty priceless, huh?" And he proceeded to do his best stiff statue act, earning a hearty laugh from the Dragon Warrior. "I should make it my next painting."

Their fun was cut short as Tigress interrupted them. Eyes still closed, she spoke in her typical indifferent fashion and didn't even bother to turn over towards them.

"If you two aren't too busy alerting every bandit in the province to our position, you might want to get some sleep." The two males eyed each other but did not speak. "If we keep a good pace tomorrow, we could be in Xiangyang by the afternoon."

Crane was especially bothered by the feline's intrusion, but his better judgement prevented his thoughts about the tiger from leaving his beak.

* * *

The first thing the three masters noticed about Xiangyang was that it was huge, much larger than they anticipated. It was evident that tracking down the owner of the relic might prove harder than Po had made it seem like. The second thing they noticed was the city was ancient. Some of the buildings in the town center looked like they hadn't been the architectural norm for about twelve hundred years.

As they had passed under one of the massive gates in the city walls, Tigress remarked that this was one of the Song Dynasty's northernmost strongholds against the Mongolian puppet states of the Jin. The streets were muddied from recent rains, and there were great masses of people in all directions. Tigress took the lead as they weaved through the maze of wooden and stone buildings.

"This weapon being up for sale will be sure to attract all kinds of trouble. Keep your eyes open for anyone that looks like they don't belong: foreign mercenaries, black market traders, soldiers that aren't wearing the colors of Xiangyang. They'll be able to lead us to whoever the seller is." She kept determinedly cutting a path through the crowd as she spoke. "Crane, I want you to get a height advantage and scout the merchant district. Po, if you could- wait... Po?" She had just looked back and stopped in her tracks.

The panda was gone.

Naturally Po, who had been complaining about the scarcity of food for weeks, went directly into the first eatery he could find. Tigress had lost sight of him as soon as he had caught the scent of food. He was always about ten steps behind the agile tiger master, unless food was involved of course; in those cases, she couldn't hope to keep up with him even with a head start. The tiger set off immediately in the direction she had last seen the panda; Crane was close behind her, trying especially hard to avoid bumping into unsavory individuals. When she saw what building the Dragon Warrior had entered, she shook her head. It was a public house and fight club.

_Po._

There was a decently long line to enter the place, and it felt like an hour before they reached the doorman, a massive rhino, at the entrance. Tigress glared at him, unimpressed.

"And just _what_ are you supposed to be?" she asked him coldly.

The rhino acted as if she hadn't said a word.

"Welcome to The Vermilion Phoenix. How tough are you?"

"How _tough_ am I?" Her features contorted in a volatile mix of anger and confusion. "Do you really want to find out?"

From behind Tigress, Crane could tell she was pissed; after waiting in this stupid line for so long, she no longer had the patience to deal with this. In another instant he saw the rhino's eyes go wide and his once proud demeanor shrivel away. Whatever he had just seen in her face, Crane knew it had to have been utterly terrifying.

"Uh… that won't be necessary! Go right in." the doorman stammered out, stepping aside abruptly.

The nervous avian watched the tiger walk in confidently. With the view into the establishment unobscured for a brief moment, he could see that the entire place was just one big melee of inebriated disputes and prizefighting.

_Po just had to eat at this place, didn't he? All the restaurants in town and he walks into a fight club._

Emerging from his thoughts, the bird now found himself facing the rhino.

"What about you, bird?"

Crane was close enough to smell the doorman's breath, and it was downright awful. He chuckled nervously.

"You know… on second thought, I think I'll just wait here."

Tigress was making her way through the crowded entryway when she heard someone call her name. After a moment of scanning the fracas around her, she spotted the source of the familiar voice. It was Po, sitting at a table downing oversized dumplings like they were nothing. She worked her way across the room through several drunken brawls over towards the panda.

"Po, just how long have you been in here?" He had to move his head a little to the side to avoid an oncoming piece of furniture that splintered against the wall behind him.

"I don't know, hour or so maybe. Have you seen the size of the dumplings here!?"

"What? No! How did you get past the line going out the front door?" She pointed back towards the army of people trying to get into the fight club.

"Oh, so _that's_ the front. Guess that means I came in through the back." He shamelessly engulfed another pawful of the dumplings.

Tigress lowered her face into her palm with a frustrated exhale. An old crocodile with the hoarsest voice she had ever heard came over and spoke to the panda with surprising fondness.

"Another round for our new champion?"

"Hit me."

The croc placed another large bowl of dumplings before the bear. Tigress was still in shock from what the waiter had just said.

"New champion?" she asked, shocked by the implication that Po had picked a fight with someone.

"That's right! This panda has crushed all previous eating records!" the reptile boasted.

_Of course he has._

"Po, this is no place for us; fighting for money and crowds is entirely dishon-" Before she could finish, a rather overweight boar had bumped into her from behind. In an instant reflex, she spun around and kicked him clear across the fight club and into the far wall, igniting a rowdy cheer from the entire clientele present. For whatever reason, their praise made her smile... just a little. She turned back to a smirking Dragon Warrior.

"You were saying?" Po mocked sardonically.

_Damn._

"Never mind. Did you at least ask anyone here about who might be selling Kung Fu relics?"

The panda, his mouth full, just shook his head.

"Of course you didn't." she said, glaring at him.

Po knew this face well; Shifu would give him the exact same look when he'd done something especially stupid. Oddly enough, it was the intrusion of the crocodile waiter into their conversation that spared him a scolding.

"So you're here for a relic as well?" the croc, who Tigress honestly couldn't tell the gender of, spoke up after overhearing their discourse.

"Yes, do you know anything about who might be selling them?"

"I don't, but that big fella over there probably does. An annoying bastard he is - been going on all day about some relic, strutting around like he owns the place."

_Perfect. Just the type of person I like to see brought low._

When Tigress turned around, she saw the crocodile had gestured across the room to the biggest water buffalo she had ever seen. The beast had just finished beating a much smaller desert jackal into a pulp and was roaring victoriously from the bottom of the fight pit. Without hesitation, she left the money she was carrying with Po.

"Wait here."

In response, the panda just shrugged and went back to stuffing his face with food. The tiger master headed back across the fight club and towards the massive warrior. Already well aware of how things were inevitably going to play out, she began loosening her muscles as she weaved between patrons.

"Hey you." she said, borderline tauntingly from above the pit, one leg resting casually on the guard ropes. "Know anything about a magic dagger?"

The colossus smashed the heads of two lightweights together before looking up at her with a smug curiosity.

"What's it to you, cat?" he answered, decking an oncoming attacker without even breaking eye contact.

"I'm looking to buy, same as you. I just want to know where it is." She somersaulted down into the pit with the brute, starting to slowly pace in circles around him. "I was thinking we could have a little wager. You could tell me who's selling - if I beat you in a fight."

The towering landmass stopped to ponder her proposition for a moment, but seemed to make up his mind when his lips widened to a grin.

"Fine. If you beat me, I tell you where to find the boom-boom magic dagger. But if I win... you become my slave."

Though the very thought made her want to puke, she knew this was her best chance to learn the weapon's whereabouts. Besides, she was _Master Tigress_ after all; she wasn't exactly known to lose a fight.

"Deal."

The behemoth huffed proudly, his arrogance evident in the stomping of his hooves as he dug himself in for a fight he obviously expected to win. Tigress began to set her stance as well, ready to face down the monstrosity without any semblance of fear. As drunken onlookers gathered before the start of what was certain to be an epic duel, the water buffalo raised both of his fists towards the ceiling and roared:

"Temutai! Warrior-King of the Qi-dan!"


	5. A Shift in Loyalties

Po was enjoying a feeling he hadn't known for nearly a month: he was full. Finally looking up from the empty bowls all around him, he noticed his half of the fight club had grown fairly desolate. Everyone was now over at the fighting ring screaming wildly at the current bout; whoever was dueling, they both must have been pretty tough, sounding like two mountains crashing together. When one of them was thrown against the wall, it felt like it would threaten to bring the whole place toppling down. Curiosity overtook him, and he navigated the maze of unconscious drunks and fighters on the floor towards the source of the commotion.

Lightly pushing a few enthusiastic bystanders aside, he looked into the pit below and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. It was none other than Tigress, fighting against without a doubt the largest person he'd ever seen. He was so massive in fact that Po was certain he couldn't even belly-gong him - and that was impressive to say the least. The two combatants were both panting heavily, having reached something of a break in the duel, and paced in a circle watching each other closely for an opening. The dust below the fighters shined with the countless copper and iron coins that had been thrown in for whoever came out on top; Po wondered just how long the fight had been going on. He cupped his paws to his mouth so Tigress could hear him over the crowd when he spoke.

"Hey Tigress, you do know the whole prizefighting thing was a _joke_ , right? I was just messing around!"

The tiger's ear gave an annoyed twitch in the panda's direction. She was unwilling to take her eyes from Temutai for even a second, as she knew this was exactly the kind of distraction her opponent was waiting for. The fight had gone on much longer than either had expected, and they both knew they were close to being beaten; but given the stakes, there would be no giving up. Temutai had absorbed an array of marring hits from the determined feline master, but was still standing nonetheless. Unlike her adversary, Tigress hadn't taken any major blows, avoiding the water buffalo's massive fists with acrobatic ease. But that didn't change the fact that she was getting increasingly fatigued; tiger style was a sprint, not a marathon.

"This is _not_ a prizefight." Tigress finally answered as another coin hit the back of her head.

The tiger was about to say something else to the panda, but that took second priority to the gaping hole she had just seen open up in the water buffalo's defense. Po watched as she leapt the width of the pit with a single bound, and unleashed a flurry of strikes at what she had found to be his weaker side. To the untrained eye, this would have looked like her going all-out on attacking, but Po could see she was holding back.

_Tigress never holds back… what is she playing at?_

After a few seconds of desperate blocks and redirections between the two, Po figured out that she was trying to lure him into a foolish attack; he only knew of one move where she waited so patiently in a fight, and it was brutal.

_She's not really going to…_

But at that moment, the beast struck out with a colossal punch at the tiger; the trap had been sprung.

The move was called Tiger and Dragon Go Into Hiding _._ As the massive fist of the behemoth came at her, Tigress spun to the side of it, grabbing his wrist with a grip of steel in her paw. She planted one paw pad in the dirt with her claws and extended the other leg into his knee with as much downward force as she could muster; at the same time, her free arm drove into the open target of his elbow with equal fury. The bloodthirsty crowd raved at the sickening sound of two of Temutai's limbs giving way simultaneously. His newly-crippled body dropped to the ground, defeated. Po was left speechless at the tiger master's devastatingly effective technique.

Between weighty breaths, Tigress flipped Temutai over with her leg and soaked in her victory; the crowd was still deafening. The King of the Qi-dan Clan had certainly lived up to his legends in terms of his sheer strength and endurance, but she had proved that he wasn't invincible.

"The dagger." she panted, trying to catch her breath. "Where is it?"

He spat up blood in reply, indignant at his defeat.

"I would have thought the legendary Temutai was a man of his word." she said, readjusting parts of her fur and gold tunic that had become ruffled in the fight. Two Qi-dan warriors dropped down and helped lift their king to his knees.

"Fine, you can have the stupid dagger. It was never going to be worth the money anyway." He tossed a piece of cloth at her with his remaining good arm, and she snatched it from the air and inspected it. It was sage green with a calligraphic insignia of gold imprinted in it, and Tigress recognized it immediately.

"This is the insignia of the Lord of Xiangyang. Is this some kind of joke? You do know I can break your other two limbs, right?"

"Stupid cat. Who else could possibly afford to own something so priceless?" He coughed up more blood, and his warriors started to move him away. Before he left he turned his head back to her.

"This isn't over! No one humiliates the Warrior-King of the Qi-dan!"

The tiger only smirked in response, before looking back down at her prize. When she at last turned around, Tigress was met with the sight of Po in complete shock.

"That guy you fought, was that-" Po started to ask, pointing subtly in the direction of the retreating Qi-dan.

"Yes." she answered forwardly, cutting him off.

"Even still, that move was total overkill." He was about to reprimand her like a master was supposed to do for once, but was distracted by the banner she held in her paw. "Wait, what's that?"

"It's what we came for." she said, as Po looked at the cloth with a confused raised brow. "Let's go find Crane."

When they walked out of the fight club they found it was nearly dark. Crane was across the muddied street on the porch of a merchant building, his body coiled over in his natural sleeping position. Even with the sun setting, they could see a storm was coming.

* * *

Across town in his sprawling palace complex, the Lord of Xiangyang was conferring with a most unexpected guest.

"This proposal is, to say the least, unusual. To accept it would risk the wrath of the Emperor, should he discover my betrayal."

The female snow leopard before him remained stooped over in a patronizing bow as she spoke, her onyx-black Mongolian clothing draping to the ground.

"Yes, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, my lord. My Khan has assured me that with the weapon in our possession, victory is a certainty. Besides, betrayal is a strong word; let's just consider this... a shift in loyalties."

The Siberian ibex grinned inwardly when the leopardess had said that.

"And my city will be spared in the invasion as you have said?"

"It will become the most prosperous city in China, and your power in this land will be second only to the Khan himself."

The lord couldn't hold back a devilish grin at her tempting words. Nonetheless, he quickly steeled himself and answered the silk-tongued Mongol emissary.

"I am interested, but unfortunately I have already planned to sell the relic to bidders here in China for a _very_ handsome price. The Qi-dan Clan has currently made the highest offer."

"The Khan is willing to pay _five times_ whatever you have been offered for the dagger." The leopardess knew all too well of the lord's greed, so she had preempted his extortion.

"Well then, in that case… we can make some arrangements." he said, trying his best to wrap his mind around how much money he had just been offered.

"We have an agreement then, my lord?"

The ibex had no passionate loyalties to the Emperor, so to him such a proposal would the easiest money he'd ever make, with the added bonus of immense power in the near future. He had no grand designs on world domination, only to sit back and get rich.

"An agreement we have indeed. The dagger will be provided to your envoy shortly, and I will eagerly await the rest of the… compensation."

"Of course." she said through a fanged smile.

At once, the meeting was interrupted by the palace messenger.

"My lord, you have visitors from the Valley of Peace, several Kung Fu masters. I would have turned them away, but they carried your ensign. They say they are here to purchase a certain relic from your estate."

The ibex and leopardess joined in a silent understanding gaze.

"By all means then, send them in at once!" he ordered, his eyes never leaving the Mongol's.

The servant bowed and left the two alone in the hall once more.

"It would seem the Qi-dan have been outbid. These interlopers will be dealt with." he said confidently.

Crossing a few masters was going to be much easier than the entire Qi-dan Clan.

The ibex summoned his military commander, a physically imposing gorilla, and whispered some indiscernible orders before turning back to his guest.

"It's been a pleasure doing business with you." he said, finishing with a bow.

She responded with a smirk and a simple tip of the head before heading out of the hall herself.

* * *

The Kung Fu masters waited for the return of the messenger to grant them access to the hall of the lord. A flash of lightning in the distance revealed that the complex was dominated by two massive twin pagodas which flanked a shorter but wider palatial building. The scheme was a deep sage with bright gold accents on the linings of the roof tiers and columns; but in the dark, the place was nothing but a black silhouette, save for the courtyard that was illuminated by numerous torches.

When the messenger returned, he denoted that only two of them could enter to meet with the lord.

"This won't be long." Tigress said to the avian master beside her.

Crane nodded and stood by the doors, watching the clouds collecting ominously above in the night sky as Po and Tigress proceeded into the hall.

From the moment the great doors of the palace had closed behind the other two masters, who were now heading deep into the estate, Crane felt uneasy. He looked around and couldn't help but notice how the numerous well-armed soldiers in the courtyard were all staring at him. It was completely silent except for the occasional rumble of thunder, but the nonstop eye contact made every passing instant seem like a year of its own. He tried to alleviate the feeling by humming a nervous tune, but it was to no avail. When a gorilla appeared in their midst, some of the guards started to pace towards him, edging ever closer to the martial arts master. Still, not a single word had been said.

As awkward as it had been for several minutes, it did not feel surprising nor unusual that mere seconds later the courtyard had erupted into a furious melee; there was an unspoken understanding between warriors, and no need for explanation but only to fight each other. Everyone in the courtyard started to rush at Crane as the first drops of rain started to fall. The first few guards to reach the bird were dropped instantly by his precise redirection of their own attacks. He followed with a majestic upward flourish with his wings that knocked back several more, and reciprocated this action with his downward "Wings of Justice" move.

But the fact remained that there were just way too many of them, and he was finding that the aerial moves that gave him the advantage were difficult to pull off in such dark and wet conditions.

Crane knew the odds were impossible, but just like he had no idea why they were fighting, he was oblivious to any alternatives. The avian put up a surprising display of skill and endurance given the sheer number of enemies he faced, defeating many of them when the brutish force of their own strikes were sent towards their comrades.

The guards would intermittently lose track of the bird, only for the next lighting strike to reveal that he had dropped several more of their allies and again had the tactical advantage. At one point, two ibex guards pinned his right wing between the shafts of their spears, but he rolled his surprisingly muscular airfoil over on itself and shattered the wood completely. He raised his vision to locate the steel spear tips in midair; finding them, he held himself in a steady hover and kicked each with one of his legs. The blades traveled at immeasurable speed and felled two more soldiers.

Finding himself at a height advantage, he spotted the gorilla that seemed to be their leader and dropped towards him, gaining speed rapidly. Curling his wings tightly around his own form, his velocity crescendoed into a death spiral heading right for his foe. The gorilla readied himself to intercept the attack but was shocked to find that this motion was a feign by the bird, who opened his wings at the last second to power a bone-crushing precision blow to the primate's chest. Crane had seized on the ape's surprise to the full, and was now pinning him down, claws at his neck. The guard commander looked up to see the avian raise the brim of his hat and reveal his penetrating bronze eyes, full of fury. The rain began to pour harder. He had thought taking down this nervous little bird would be easy, but now all he felt was fear when the master spoke with a tone that could devour his very soul.

" _Call off this attack._ "

He was about to whimper for mercy, but the gorilla's defeat was interrupted by something neither of them had seen coming. A massive war-hammer impacted the bird's wing from behind with unbelievable force. His right appendage was utterly shattered as he crashed to the dirt, completely unable to fight. The gorilla looked up to see his savior was none other than the snow leopardess he had just seen in the lord's hall moments before. She had presumably picked up the hammer from a fallen guard and finished what the palace guards could not. Crane was able to catch a glimpse of the Mongolian as his body buckled over from the impact, but the now pelting rain made it hard to see. What was impossible to miss, though, was the shape of a dagger that she gripped in her other paw. He was sure that he'd never seen a dagger shaped like this one; it was ominously snake-like. There was not a doubt in his mind that this was the weapon they had come to retrieve.

The pain was starting to catch up with him now, and for several seconds, Crane could only see white as his senses overloaded in agony. The fight had started so quickly he still hadn't the chance to even process what was happening around him, nor the fact his hat had been taken off by the force of the blow from behind. He was now sprawled unnaturally on the ground, his left wing trying feebly to shield its crippled counterpart; the shock of the hit was still coming at him in waves of merciless torment. When his vision came back, he found the leopardess straddling him from above, the sinuous blade pressed firmly against his neck. As she tossed the hammer to the gorilla who was finally getting to his feet, the feline looked down into his eyes, and Crane saw that they were an extraordinary royal purple. He started to shake with unease at the position he now found himself in, and she responded with a suggestive smile.

"Well now… aren't _you_ a pretty little bird!"

She ran her free paw down his neck alluringly, slicking down his now-soaked feathers. He signaled his disapproval with an iced glare.

"Were you and your friends coming here for _this_?" she taunted, pushing the blade harder against his throat for emphasis. "It is the property of the Khan now, love."

Crane has begun to realize that the weapon was vibrating on its own accord, lightly shaking even when firmly in the cat's grip. He was finding it hard to breathe with the blade against his throat; the crippling pain in his wing, and the proximity of the feline seemingly taking all the air away from him didn't make matters any better. As drops of rain fell from her ears down around his head, he realized it was true that cats liked to toy with their prey after all.

"It would be such a shame to kill something as _majestic_ as yourself…" The feline finally pulled the blade away, snickering. "Besides, dealing with you isn't _my_ job." she said, nodding to the guard commander that had been watching the one-sided exchange with interest.

As the leopardess got off of him and started to head out of the courtyard, Crane raised his unprotected head to the gorilla who now wielded the same war-hammer that had felled him. His heart started to creep up into his throat. The beast raised the brutal weapon overhead, and for a moment all was still as the drops of rain slicked the shiny face of the hammer.

The only thing Crane could manage to voice was a weak "Why?" before dull, cold steel came down on him.

The blow had struck him in the head and robbed him of all consciousness; his last thought was of how it was a cruel mercy of sorts, as the pain was now gone along with all other sensation. The guards proceeded to drag Crane's limp body and their fallen compatriots out of sight, leaving behind several shredded feathers as the only evidence of the fight.


	6. The Finest Tea in the Province

Oblivious to the violence that had just taken place outside, the tiger and panda masters headed ever further into the Xiangyang palace. It was near-silent as they walked, despite the quickening pace of the rain outside. They had been proceeding through the halls for some time now, and Tigress couldn't help but suspect the palace servant - a pig of some kind - was taking the long route to the lord's throne room.

Just as she was about to say something, the three of them rounded a final corner, bringing a set of heavy carved bronze doors into view; they swung open just as the two masters passed through the frame. Po could no longer feel the presence of the servant with them, and turned around to find the strange individual had departed.

_Odd._

They started walking forward, finding that the surrounding room was rather large, with a high ceiling to match. Impressively, it took only a few torches to adequately light the space, certainly a testament to the skill of its architect. Along the main promenade of the throne room stood many pedestals and displays, immediately reminding the masters of the Jade Palace; it was apparent this lord was something of a collector. As Po openly ogled these lavish decorations and relics, Tigress had her gaze fixated on the ibex that was standing near the base of the elevated throne and flanked by several female attendants.

He stood there patiently, arms folded behind him. Though the lord's bearing surrendered nothing, the tiger looked at him with unease; gradually she assumed it was just her naturally over-cautious disposition making her weary.

"Greetings." he said at last. "It's been ages since I've had the honor of hosting masters of Kung Fu."

The panda and tiger bowed to the noble as courtesy demanded. Rising from the gesture, they took note of the ibex's thin physique, and how the tufts of his chin fur had been elegantly styled into a beard.

"Tell me, what brings you to my city?"

"I believe you already know." Tigress postured, holding up the piece of fabric she'd won off the Qi-dan king.

Further asserting her intentions, the tiger dropped the satchel of payment at the lord's feet; the weighty sound it made hitting the floor was proof enough of the considerable value in coinage it contained. While Po thought she may have acted a bit bluntly, he showed support for this forwardness, arms crossed; it had been a long journey, after all. The ibex glanced at them with a hint of disappointment, realizing any further stalling would be for naught.

"Ah, yes - the dagger..."

Po nodded.

"So be it, I will go fetch it at once. But for now, please indulge in my hospitality - this is the finest tea in the province."

He motioned to his attendants, who presented the two with cups of tea. Once their offering was accepted, the female servants bowed and returned to their places near the throne, the lord having since paced out of the room with a regal stride.

While the feline eyed the drink quizzically, the panda gave it an eager sip, his eyes dilating as soon as the cup met his lips.

"Wow… that's amazing - and I don't even drink tea!" Po said as he started ambitiously downing the rest of the liquid.

Tigress usually only drank what she prepared herself, but she was unwilling to dishonor a lord of China by denying his hospitality. With a last disapproving glance at Po's lack of finesse and etiquette, she gave the drink the very smallest of sips.

_Wow… Po wasn't lying. This is the best tea I've ever tasted._

Minutes passed, and they stood there drinking all the while. As the length of time drew on and the teacups were long-since emptied, the lord had suspiciously still not returned. But time, unfortunately, was a notion that was increasingly beyond their consciousness. The two masters had begun to feel something - a twinge of a feeling - creeping up, gradually overtaking their senses.

The two didn't even notice as the servants exited silently out of the room with the payment. Before long, Po had propped himself against a nearby column, feeling even more elated and carefree than usual. To him, it was a great feeling… nothing really mattered anymore. Any thought of the mission had completely left his mind, and he was glad to see it gone. For several minutes, he was entirely content to just sit there with a big stupid grin on his face; anyone and anything else be damned.

That was going greatly until a porcelain tea cup shattered against the column above his head - it jolted him violently from his dream-like state. He looked over, wide-eyed, to see Tigress gazing back at him. Po could tell immediately that she was not herself. The usually-tense form of the tiger was now quite relaxed, and she wasn't holding herself up straight as she was typically wont to do. Instead, her arms dangled forward slightly and her whole body slumped downwards. Po found it unsettling to see her list side to side, struggling mightily to keep her balance.

Tigress had felt the unusual feeling come over her after finishing the drink, but she hadn't been truly concerned until she had closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the scene around her had appeared vastly different, as if she had blacked out for several minutes. She had instantly looked down to the teacup in her paw with an understanding rage, and chucked it aimlessly; and had missed Po by mere inches.

Po got up to walk over to her but only managed about two steps before face-planting into the floor, finding himself to be in a similarly incapacitated state. He did his best to right himself, and succeeded after an extended effort.

"That was some crazy tea, huh?"

"Po, we've clearly been drugged." she deadpanned, opposing the digits of her paw and watching her reaction time slow to a useless degree.

"Yeah, I know… but it feels kind of _good_ though."

Strangely enough, the tiger master smiled at this. Like Po, Tigress was finding that with each passing second, she was caring less and less about anything.

_So sleepy... must have been some kind of sedative; I'm such a fool for drinking that shit..._

The tiger stumbled slightly, accidentally bumping into the panda momentarily. His form seemed blurry to her vision, stretched and distorted impossibly as if time seemed to slow.

"Woah..." she mumbled.

_Sedatives don't do that..._

Then it happened again. She blinked, but when opening her eyes, found time to have passed without her cognizance once more. Even more alarming, words were now coming out of her mouth that she couldn't remember processing beforehand.

"I still can't believe I broke _two_ of that guy's limbs at the same time earlier... it felt so good! Do you know how long I've wanted to use that move?" she blurted out, looking at her own paws excitedly.

"I wish I could have fought him. It would have been an honor to have my butt kicked by a legend like Temutai." Po responded as he was busy trying to scratch his back against a nearby armor display.

"Oh, you think you would lose? Please!" she huffed.

"What?"

"It's _you_ we're talking about, Po. You'd just absorb all his hits like they were nothing, and defeat him with whatever crazy idea you happen to pull out of your ass."

Po laughed uncontrollably; he'd never heard Tigress swear out loud before.

At that moment, Tigress blacked out for a third time, and found that Po was asking her a question when she returned to reality. The panda stumbled about oddly; she would've assumed he'd been drinking since dawn had she not known better.

"Tigress, do you remember the battle where we first used the Double-Death Strike?"

Again, she started to speak without really thinking.

"You mean that time we were outnumbered twenty-to-one by those bandits from Xuchang? That was insane!"

Po was so shocked by her outburst that it almost made him snap back to reality.

_Wow… Tigress sounds a lot like me when she's been drugged out of her mind._

"Fools never knew what hit them!"

In her delusional euphoria, Tigress excitedly punched Po with her completely unrestricted strength and sent him flying backwards. He launched right into a nearby column and bounced off it, ricocheting right back into the tiger, causing them to both fall to the ground. They each found themselves unable to get up, so they remained on the floor, experiencing temporary bouts of paralysis. Po was upset by his body's unresponsiveness, but Tigress was just smiling at the ceiling obliviously.

"You know what, panda? You're a great friend." she declared randomly, placing a paw on his shoulder. "I've never had any friends my entire life… though it's probably what I deserve. I understand principles, not people."

"Bah, that's not true." Po was starting to slur his speech a little. "What about that stuff you said back in Gongmen… _'The hardcore do understand'_ and all that?"

"No, that's just it, Po. That's only you." She shook her head to stay awake, her eyelids perpetually half-closed. "You're the only person I've ever confided in like that."

"Why me, then?" Po questioned, also looking ready to sleep, but somehow still managing to produce coherent speech.

"Because-"

Her body was temporarily gripped by a flinching seizure, interrupting the stride of her speaking. Her grimace seemed to signify it hadn't felt particularly good, but she began speaking again as if nothing had transpired.

"I realized how much we have in common. I would've thought you'd be the last person I would relate to... seeing as how you dropped face-first into a title I spent twenty years of my life trying to achieve."

Po looked away guiltily, as even in this state he couldn't bear to face her with the thought of this. It was something he had tried to suppress long ago. He knew from the first moment what it had meant to her when Oogway had selected him to be the Dragon Warrior; it was soul-crushing. That very night he wanted to try to talk the crazy old tortoise into making things right by giving the title to someone who'd undoubtedly been worthy of it.

His eyes shifted to the tiger at his side who now looked drowsy, but also a little sad. Oogway had convinced him to remain resolute, to never give up; for in a way, the life of an esteemed Kung Fu warrior was his dream just as much as it was hers. But how could he ever be truly happy living his dream when he knew the cost was crushing someone else's? He couldn't hope to ever truly reconcile that fact.

The pleasant feeling from before was now gone. The air Po breathed grew stale, his stomach turned, the room seemed to spin. Just moving his head slightly ignited a fire within his skull, a potent toxin coursing through his veins.

"Tigress, you think we're going to die from this?"

The feline laughed garishly as he posed the question, but grew quiet just as quickly.

"Maybe."

Her paradox tone of casual seriousness was fitting, their predicament meandering toward calamity.

The tiger rolled to her side away from the panda, taking in the palace throne room from the low sideways angle of her vision. The present moment and Tigress' thoughts started to meld together. Her whole body ached. A deafening fatigue continued to creep over her muscles, her breathing slowing.

_Is this what death feels like?_

Behind her, Po was now out cold, his body being jolted by intermittent convulsions as if in a particularly active dream. Tigress would have been afraid, but her mind was too far gone... pain manifested itself as a dulled inconvenience.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could make out blurred shapes - outlines of people coming closer. She tried to move her neck to see who it might be, but her muscles refused to comply. There was just a sound - the tapping of sharp claws against a hard stone floor; and for a brief instant she distinctly made out the thick spotted tail of a snow leopard before her.

Something constricted around the tiger's ankle, and she knew her exanimate body was being dragged someplace. But where she was being taken would remain a mystery, as twilight closed in around her vision, and all became darkness.


	7. Delirium

The wind was dancing playfully with the majestic golden robe that adorned the Dragon Warrior. The only thing the countless horde of enemies around him could see beneath his rice hat was his confident smirk as they edged closer, weapons drawn. Po knew almost instantly that it was a dream, but that was fine with him, as this was the best kind of dream: the one where you can control what happens. He was in a marshy wetland of some kind, and there were pagodas and stilt villages on the horizon. The sky was an almost blinding heroic gold; he'd been here many times before.

"Enemies of justice! I can smell your fear! It smells like…" He paused to sniff the air. "Overcooked dumplings! Such villainy - prepare to feel the thunder!"

Po knew what was coming and didn't even bother taking a defensive stance; at the last moment as the multitude of fiends descended on him, he unleashed a wave of golden energy that threw them back. Moving faster than light, he started defeating his foes one by one in "extremely bodacious" fashion, using punches and kicks that defied the properties of the real world. When his strikes collided, his adversaries flew back a ridiculously exaggerated distance, and they exploded into clouds of rainbow dust.

_This is pretty amazing… but what could make it better? Invisibility, that's what!_

All of the sudden, Po became invisible to the villains, and he started to knock them down in the most hilarious fashions imaginable.

_Now how about a sword made of the sun's energy? That would be awesome!_

Po reappeared, and such a weapon immediately materialized out of thin air in his right fist.

_Yeah_ _! Just like that!_

When he swung the weapon, it would spawn a conflagration in the form of a burning phoenix; the blazing avians would grab his enemies in their ethereal talons and fly them into the golden sun above.

_The Sword of Heroes can't even touch this thing! Best. Dream. Ever._

Thus commenced an increasingly convoluted and ridiculous sequence of fantastical pseudo-Kung Fu magic fighting that went on for what felt like months in Po's dreamscape. Most of what was going on was complete and utter bullshit, with no basis in any real martial arts - the likes of which would make his master face-palm, no doubt. The bear master was unconcerned with this, though; these dreams of himself as an invincible legend of Kung Fu had always been great, but they were better by ten-fold now that there was a little pinch of reality to it all. At some point a number of legendary martial arts masters joined the panda, the Furious Five among them.

While fighting together against a never-ending tide of villainy, Po suddenly noticed Tigress standing still a short distance away, apparently unfazed by the army of scorpions and wolves all around them; the wind that blew across the battlefield seemed to unsettle a dark mist that seeped from her black stripes. This, coupled with the fact that she wasn't fighting, confused the panda. She started to walk towards the Dragon Warrior, as if she wanted to say something to him. He stopped fighting too, just to hear what she was trying to say to him over the chaos of the fight; as soon as he had done this, Po noticed that none of the incoming blows seemed to actually connect with him, like he wasn't even there. Her presence had invaded the dream like drops of blood spreading through water, and was now causing the landscape to destabilize.

"You have something of mine."

_The hell?_

The epic music that had been playing in his dream from the outset came to a halt at once.

Her presence had caused countless fissures to materialize in the dreamscape surrounding them, and the ground around the entire battlefield started to fall away to a darkness he couldn't see below. Everything he had previously exercised so much control over was now gone, save for the small platform of existence he and the tiger now inhabited.

As she started walking toward him somewhat menacingly, he backed away until he ran out of ground beneath him. Tigress raised a paw to his chest with a malicious smile on her maw, her pupils since narrowing into vicious slits; there was a blackness starting to bleed in from the edges of her large feline eyes.

"Goodbye, Po." she said in a threatening voice he no longer recognized. Po looked down at the orange paw now pinning him precariously close to the edge of the abyss. The darkness that seeped from the black bands on her forearm crept up and around his torso.

"Wh- what?"

The eyes of the tiger suddenly became desolate, solid black orbs; she gave him a powerful shove that sent him falling into the darkness of a never-ending vertiginous torture. He felt cold as he fell, surrounded by the repeating image of one thing.

Endless flights of stairs.

"No - anything but stairs!"

* * *

Tigress found herself in a familiar situation. It was the Thread of Hope all over again; it was just her and Tai Lung facing each other down. The Valley of Peace was at her back, and she was the last obstacle keeping him from entering it. The arrogant snow leopard had just asked the whereabouts of the Dragon Warrior.

"How do you know you're not looking at her?"

But he didn't respond the way she had expected… or remembered rather; the fact that she was wearing her golden tunic and not her red vest should have been the first clue that things weren't going to be the same.

"Please. You wish me to believe Oogway would choose _you?_ " He let out a menacing chuckle as he leaned comfortably on the ropes of the bridge. "I can tell you, from personal experience of course, he does not choose _monsters_ like us."

_The way he said that word… but he couldn't possibly know what it means to me, could he? No! I'm nothing like him!_

Defiant, she lunged at him, only to find her attack countered perfectly. In another instant, she was pinned against the side of the rope bridge by the muscular spotted feline.

"I see you've learned nothing from last time!" Tai Lung growled sadistically.

_Last time? What the hell is that supposed to mean!?_

The dumbstruck tiger never got the chance to comprehend what this statement was implying; the leopard tossed her upward, roaring as he performed a perfect rising spin-kick that shot her off of the bridge and careening into the mists below. She fell and fell, and the wings of Crane never came to her rescue. The clouds below her eventually opened to a cold stone floor that she crashed into with tremendous velocity.

She was dazed from the fall at first, but quickly came-to and realized she was in a cold dark room. The only light was from a single blade of moonlight that crept through a small opening in the wall. The reinforced iron door and countless claw marks in the walls left no space for doubt: it was her room from the Bao Gu Orphanage. She hated the thought of this place enough, let alone the sight of it; she had tried her entire adult life to erase its memory.

A voice started to speak from the blackness around her; it was reminiscent of her own - indifferent and distant, but it's timbre heavier and more cold.

"Monster. That's what they call us. That's what they have always called us. Because... that's what we are."

"Who… what are you?" she questioned hesitantly as the room was suddenly illuminated by two large yellow orbs emanating from the corner.

"Don't be a fool, Tigress." The form moved closer, so she could make out its features. It was a huge, twisted, monstrous tiger with canine teeth the size of daggers running the length of its muzzle. It flashed a vile grin, the despicable feline horror inching closer.

"I am you… and you, are me."

"No! You truly are a monster!" She backed away from the beast, her arms held up defensively. The feral before her shook its head as it began to speak.

"There was a time when you accepted the truth of what we are, but you've diluted yourself into this fantastical notion that you are some 'noble warrior.' Ha! You only fight because battle is how you unleash the beast within, under the guise of something society deems… _more acceptable_. Tell me, could you truly see yourself in any other profession the way we are? The gods gave us our rage, our strength, and our claws for a reason. We are built for killing; we are built for death!"

She wanted to rebuke this demon so badly, but she felt ensnared by its rapid accusations, so she remained locked in uncomfortable silence.

"Don't you see? We are not like the rest of the weaklings around us. They have always shunned you, and yet you have let yourself become their slave; you defend those who have done nothing but spew venom on you your whole life!" The creature was slowly pacing around her, its pointed ears twitching with pent up rage. "If only you could hear what they say about you, even now!"

"I defend them because they cannot defend themselves! It's the honorable thing to do!"

"Do you even listen to yourself?" The demon, now thoroughly indignant, was starting to produce a froth at the mouth that dripped to the floor below. "Who defended us when we were nothing but a caged animal no-one wanted? Where was the honor you speak of then? For years we rotted in here because of _their weakness_!"

"But Shifu changed things! He made it right… showed me my true path." The room somehow seemed to be getting even darker.

"The only thing that _little rat_ ever showed you was how to hate yourself for what you are! If he taught you so well, changed you so much, then why is it that everyone around you fears you and no-one loves you?"

Tigress' eyes affixed with the demon's, and two amber fires collided with a cataclysmic brilliance to rival the sun.

"You lie."

"Do I? I can tell you who definitely didn't love you: your parents - they didn't even care for you enough to raise you!"

The smaller tiger shriveled at these words.

"No! I will not listen to this! I am nothing like you!" Tigress was now huddled to the ground, trying vainly to cover her ears.

"Why not? Am I speaking too much truth for you, _little kitten_?"

Tigress forgot her fear at once. She hated that insult. _Hated it_. A fierce growl escaped her throat as she bared her teeth at the beast, even uncharacteristically letting her claws fly out from her digits. As the growl became a mighty roar, the demon only wore a wider grin, its eyes narrowing victoriously.

It spoke its next words in a calm breathy tone, but with no less rancor; they were not yelled, they were not growled, but they cut immeasurably deeper than any words Tigress had heard before.

_"There she is. There's the monster."_

Tigress knew the saber-toothed fiend had her cornered, and lowered her gaze, dejected. Her claws retracted slowly.

"You want to know the best thing Tai Lung ever did? Hmm?" Its pacing had resumed once more, but Tigress did not raise her head or move at all to challenge. "When he burned the Valley of Peace to the ground. On that one day he drove more fear into the hearts of those pathetic fools than you have in your whole life. He fulfilled his purpose; he did what comes to us naturally when we are wronged and cheated. He put them in their place as _lesser beings_."

"Enough, I will hear no more of your depraved filth!" She was upset, but not enraged, and the beast knew at once she meant to fight.

"By all means, then! Try and kill me! How easily you forget we are the same!"

Tigress didn't waste time in the fight. She immediately dodged the vicious slashing attacks of the feral and leapt on its back. It tried desperately to claw her off, but she locked her arms around the beast's neck and wouldn't let up in the slightest.

"Fighting me is pointless you fool! We are-"

Tigress had cut the demon off by expertly snapping its massive neck in a single brutal jerk; she rode the now lifeless corpse to the ground and climbed victoriously off its back, feeling as if she had just cleansed herself of a great evil. Her pride was swallowed by dread when she looked back.

On the ground before her there was a body, but not the one she had expected.

The barren, glassy eyes were illuminated by a slit of moonlight that crept through the opening in the wall; it was a small tiger cub, one that had evidently been killed in the same manner Tigress had just dispatched the demon. The look that was now permanently fixed into her features wasn't one of rage or torment, but of utter hopelessness and despair. The sight of it made Tigress drop to her knees once more, as it was all just too much for her dazed mind to take in. She ran her paw over the cub's facial stripes that were a perfect mirror of her own; the true demon was something she could never hope to expel or run away from: it really had been a part of herself. Beneath all the numerous layers of hardcore training and mental conditioning, a part of Tigress would always be that little girl who felt robbed and cheated by life itself. So infernal was her misery, the tiger didn't even react as the floor below her dropped out, leaving her in an interminable freefall into the black expanse below. It was nothing but weightlessness as she fell, her ears flapping against the rush of air... cold, night air.

All of existence became darkness; time itself became indefinite.

_Falling._


	8. Painful Memories

_Gods… how did it come to this?_

Crane had no idea how long he'd been going on like this. All around him there was only the sand sea of the Gobi Desert, and even though it was deep into the night, the dry air made breathing difficult. On the horizon he saw the desert opened into a more vegetated steppe, but getting there before his already weakened body gave out seemed unlikely; the fact that he was dragging two unconscious mammals behind him made this vastly more difficult.

The strides he was taking were an awkward combination of lunges and short, pained bursts of flight. The soreness from his injury came at him especially badly when he tried to flap his maimed right wing. Holding on to Po's paw with one leg and planting into the sand below with the other, he could only manage to move a few feet at a time. With Tigress stacked atop him, Po's comatose body was leaving a deep impression in the sand that crisscrossed over the dunes as far back as Crane could see.

For the first time the thought crossed his mind that his friends might be dead. He hadn't seen either one of them so much as twitch.

_If they truly are dead… there would be no point in dragging them, right? It would be so much less painful…_

It was a tempting notion.

_No! I have to believe they're not dead!_

He was a warrior after all, and he wasn't about to give up now.

He thought about how he had gotten into this predicament; it had been a betrayal of some kind, obviously. But who had orchestrated it? The Lord of Xiangyang? The Qi-dan King that Tigress had provoked? The Mongolian that had injured his wing? He supposed it mattered little now. Chances of survival seemed slim, and he reckoned they should have been dead already, anyway. The giant condors that had flown them out of Xiangyang and into the northern deserts had dropped them from an un-survivable height, and he hadn't gotten his full consciousness back until the three of them had fallen halfway to their deaths.

Somehow, he had managed to grab his companions and flap his one good wing just enough to keep the impact from turning them into red mud. Po had just bounced right off the sand, and it made Crane wonder if he should have even bothered carrying him to the ground, as the panda was pretty much impervious to blunt-force damage. Tigress, on the other wing, had landed particularly gracelessly. He knew that cats always landed on their paws, but he had learned the rule didn't apply when they were out cold; something in her had made a loud cracking noise when she hit the ground, and he could only pray it hadn't been her neck. If that was the case, even if he survived this mess, Shifu was going to kill him anyway.

He had been doing this so long he didn't even have to tell his body what to do anymore; the rhythm of his near-identical lunges became a natural music to his limbs. Thinking in the present was hurting too much because of his freshly acquired concussion, so his mind drifted to the past… to Mei Ling. Who else could he think of when about to meet his death? He had so many regrets. All he could think of was the day five years before when he had last seen her…

* * *

It had been something of a slow day at the Jade Palace, but that was normal as this was before a certain panda had been proclaimed the Dragon Warrior. Crane was just retiring from a long day of intense training with the Five aimed at developing better deflective strategies; this had - predictably - gone very well for him, as his style of Kung Fu was built around these techniques. In an unusual turn of events, Master Shifu had given the warriors the rest of the day off, so Crane had elected to go into town alone. It was almost winter in the Valley of Peace.

As he strolled through the merchant's quarter, in search of clothing more appropriate for the coming cold months, he heard a familiar noise that he couldn't place at first. As he tried to locate the musical sound, he discovered it was someone humming a traditional folk tune… he'd heard that voice before. Working his way through the crowd, his previous shopping completely forgotten, he did his best to close the distance on whoever was humming a beautiful Xintianyou lullaby. After nudging a couple of haggling goats aside, he saw, but refused to believe, who the source of the song was.

It was her; the girl that possessed his memory and dreams alike. She still hadn't seen him yet, and was playfully inspecting some clay pottery with the Furious Five's likeness painted on them, paying special attention to the one that featured himself.

At once it had seemed too good to be true. Mei Ling… Crane hadn't seen her since that fateful day when a young tiger had burst into Lee Da Academy and given him the opportunity of a lifetime, and he'd jumped at it. Though he always assumed his friend had understood what the privilege of training at the Jade Palace had meant to him, he had never had the chance to say goodbye to her. The one who had pushed him to follow his dream of Kung Fu and the first person he'd ever met who hadn't treated him like complete shit… and he hadn't even said goodbye. He felt pangs of guilt wash over him.

_I should have visited her. Will she hold it against me?_

Crane started to consider backing away, his usual cripplingly nervous temperament taking control. He couldn't face her… but somehow he knew he had to. He loved her after all, and she knew it too; this was surely the universe taking pity on him and giving him a "nudge." He stepped forward and feigned initial surprise when he spoke.

"M-Mei Ling?"

The cat turned abruptly when she had heard a voice that had been missing in her life for far too long.

"Crane!"

He didn't even have a chance to bathe in the radiance of her smile for a whole second, as it was behind his back in a tight hug that quickly.

Any reservations he had been holding onto evaporated when faced with her warmth once more. He was surer of his love for Mei Ling than anything in his life. Confidence, personability, everything he hated himself for not having, she had in spades. He often wondered what he could possibly offer her in return, to somehow explain how she would value him, reciprocate his feelings. He could not help but view love as a scale that had to be evened out, finding his own measure perpetually lacking.

The two spent the whole afternoon catching up, first in the market, then at a local restaurant. The place was expensive, but he didn't mind, he wanted to make this day count. It wasn't like Crane really spent his money on anything anyway; his lifestyle was built around frugality, minimalism. All the while, she never once brought up his sudden departure, only praising his Kung Fu skills and how they had become well-known all over China... she had seemed genuinely proud of him. In return, he had enjoyed learning about how she had an interest in mastering the mystical force of Chi through meditation, something he deemed still well beyond his capabilities.

The golden cat was looking much different than when Crane had last seen her. Her facial features were more defined and mature than he remembered, and the same could be said of the rest of her, too; the result was that Mei Ling, who had since taken on the attire more fitting to her new rank of master, looked even more stunning than he had ever dreamed. The Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom offered easily the best sunset view the valley had to offer, and the two eventually found themselves there. They mused on about all the students who used to make fun of Crane at Lee Da; as it turned out, the same people all looked up to him now as some kind of Kung Fu idol. The ebb and flow of life has an odd sense of humor.

As they laughed at the delicious irony of it all, the two masters unconsciously started to drift closer together. It was the strangest feeling, as if something in the air around them had changed. Crane felt genuinely happy... satisfied in a way that the monotony of his constant training could never hope to match. Mei Ling smiled at her avian friend for a long time; he could never hope to capture such a beautiful smile in a painting. It seemed to possess the innocent, cosmic bliss of life itself - and it entranced the young bird. He lost all track of time just looking at her, and was somewhat surprised when the cat finally spoke.

"Crane… Lu Xian,"

There were no more than three people living who knew Crane's real name, and two were his sad excuses for parents. He had hated his name for most of his life, preferring to just go by "Crane," and when he had become a master it was his title. But somehow when she had said it just now, he felt a foreign sense of pride, confidence even; it was fitting, since she was the one who instilled these traits in him in the first place.

"I think... I love you."

Crane hadn't seen those words coming from her - not by a long shot; they'd always been close in a special way, but neither of them ever expected to hear any kind of profession from the other. That was just the nature of the lives they led. Kung Fu masters weren't supposed to cultivate such relationships, and they had always secretly believed that as long as they played this little game of unconfessed affection, they wouldn't have to address the obvious conflicts of interest. The unsure look on the golden cat's face showed she felt as if a dire mistake had been made. Nonetheless, Crane's emotions were more akin to a supernova approaching critical mass, and he'd be damned if he was going to try and fight them.

"I-I don't know what to say…"

He let his body show his answer by wrapping her in a feathered embrace.

"I shouldn't have said that. It's not fair to you..." she started, unsure.

"No - I feel the same. I always have."

He still couldn't remember just what had happened next, for time passed slowly and like a hazed mirror of reality. There was only the ephemeral memory, shattered barriers, the sensation of _drowning_.

Crane couldn't believe his own surprise when he woke up the next morning still under the Peach Tree with the golden cat master sleeping on top of him. The avian knew right away he had made a horrible mistake; he nudged the slumbering feline awake.

"Mei Ling, you can't be here! You have to go!"

Far from awake, the cat groggily waved off his sudden demands.

"What? What are you talking about Xian?"

"You have to leave Mei, before-"

But when he looked up, he knew it was no use. Master Shifu stood above the two, the fury in his eyes strengthening by the second.

"Master Shifu, I assure you it's not-"

His master had silenced him with an outstretched paw, and looked as if about to erupt with enough force to blow the Jade Mountain off its rocks.

Both masters jumped off each other in a dreadful combination of embarrassment and terror, trying to straighten their ruffled clothing and appearance. They gave Shifu a bowing salute, but were not surprised when he did not return it. The older master hopped down from the rock he had been standing on, and walked right up to Crane, pointing at him accusingly with the flute that doubled as his staff. His words were not yelled but spoken softly with a venomous tone, that ended up being infinitely more biting than if it had just been screamed aloud.

"I expected better of you Crane. You are a student of the palace, you have responsibilities!"

"Master, please-"

The red panda's glare stole the air from the bird's lungs.

"I will spare you the embarrassment of informing the other masters about this little 'incident,' but you will be doing two extra hours of training a day for three months. And If I _ever_ find you like this again, I will not hesitate to banish you from the Jade Palace! Am I clear?"

Crane shook his head up and down as vigorously as his neck would allow. Shifu's attention now turned to Mei Ling, who was visibly shaking in anticipation of the red panda's rage being put on her.

"And you! You have come into our sanctum and desecrated it! I don't know who you are, and I don't really care, but show your face around here again and you will wish I'd used the Wuxi Finger Hold on you - it would be _merciful_ in comparison to what I will do!"

Crane looked over to see Mei Ling with her jaw clamped shut, barely suppressing a flood of tears. It was a little shocking to see, but that was only because he had grown accustomed to being around a more emotionless feline. The sight of it made Crane want to tell Shifu what he really thought of his master at this moment, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He had tried to say it hadn't been what it looked like, but if he was honest Crane didn't actually know if that was true or not. There was a pause where he could have stood up for her, but he didn't. For a second time he was left to choose between Kung Fu and Mei Ling, and for a second time he chose Kung Fu. Crane could only watch helplessly as his master proceeded to insult the girl he loved in just about every way imaginable; he could never hope to forgive himself. Before turning to leave, Mei Ling took what was sure to be her last look at her friend.

"I'm sorry… I didn't mean..." She could no longer hold back her tears. "Goodbye, Crane."

As she walked away, his beak had mouthed a response, but words would not come out. She was gone from his life once more.

For the first few months, Crane felt as if he could never respect Shifu again, and the extra training every day surely didn't help him warm back up to his master. But over time, he realized he had only himself to blame. Shifu was still in the right, as there were strict rules in place regarding what his teacher had caught him doing. Everything had happened so fast, and he'd made so many mistakes; if only he hadn't allowed things to go so far, if only he hadn't fallen asleep, _if only, if only, if only_.

Even when fate itself would seem to push them together, he had still found a way to mess it all up. The realization crushed him, rendering the avian inconsolable for months longer. It did get marginally better over time, as he found solace in his artwork, and the arrival of Po into his life had as positive an effect as it did on all the Jade Palace's occupants; but Mei Ling was always in the back of his mind, though. For that one day, everything in the universe had been perfect. The golden cat remained as a painful memory he could never seem to shake. Had he truly loved her that much? Or had they just been confused and let the emotions of a single moment take them away?

* * *

The wide, auburn sun was rising lethargically over the dunes.

_Kung Fu or Mei Ling… Look where choosing Kung Fu has gotten me now: I'm dragging corpses in the desert towards certain death!_

Crane expelled some sand from his nares.

_If I ever get another chance, I won't make the same mistake a third time._

As the bird pressed on with his aimless dragging, he was suddenly snapped out of his trance… Something had collected around his legs.

Something wet.


	9. A Vision of Jade

The Dagger of Deng-Wa now sat securely in the strong grip of the Khan's paw. The blade was not what he had expected, but it was certainly not to be confused with anything else. Like most weapons of its size, it had no guard, only a night-black hilt with a yin-yang symbol carved at the pommel. It looked to be of stained ivory, but he couldn't be sure. The blade however, was like nothing he had ever seen.

"The uh, blade… any idea why it does… _that?_ " he asked, eyes wide with wonderment.

"Your guess is as good as mine. But I can assure you - this is _the one_." the same snow leopardess that had bribed the Lord of Xiangyang answered him with a proud smile.

The blade was unusually sinuous, the number of curves and redirections too many to count with ease; but what really made it stand out was the shaking. Starting from the hilt and running the length of the snake-like blade were radiating pulses of energy that made the dagger vibrate in the wielder's paw ever-so-slightly.

_And here I thought that flower would be the strangest thing I'd see... at least this year._

"The journey back was uneventful, I take it?" He was still examining his exquisite prize.

"It was a short one; the lord granted the services of his condors to our envoy. Of course, it was under the condition we make a small detour over the desert to drop some… _dead weight_. All part of our negotiations, I suppose."

The Khan looked downwards, smiling and shaking his head.

"You have proved yourself more than capable once again, daughter." he said, the leopardess beaming instantly at his words.

"Thank you, father. But if I might ask…" She hesitated, evidently unwilling to cross some unseen line.

"What is it, Yuelun?"

"While I would never question your judgement as my Khan, might I ask why we have committed nearly all the Khanate's remaining funds to this one weapon?"

"You're too humble; you must understand, this is not a weapon, but instead the key to our conquest of China."

She looked at him blankly. The light in the Khan's quarters around them was low enough that her father's eyes gave off a slight glow.

"Allow me to explain, eh?" He gestured toward a nearby table where the two sat down and he poured them each a drink.

When she took a sip, she gagged at the surprisingly strong alcohol.

"Ack! Tengri above, father! You actually drink this stuff?"

"I'd say we have cause for celebration, wouldn't you agree?" He showed a mischievous grin and proceeded to down his drink in a single shot; the larger snow leopard toyed with the dagger in his off paw before conversing with his daughter once more.

"You were there when Subutai gave his 'little vision' a month or so back, no?"

"Of course, we were all there… except mother, naturally."

"Yes, she never did care for divination or the workings of the gods - tigers are scrupulous creatures like that." Having finished his drink, he grabbed the bottle and started to take large sips from it. "But you always took after me - not just in looks, but in cunning, too. You've been ten times as helpful in these past years as that brother of yours, and believe me - if I could - I would give the Khanate to you when I pass on."

Yuelun grinned deeply, as she had always craved such validation from her father, and now she had it.

"And like me, you understand the importance of signs from the heavens, don't you?"

She nodded ardently, craving his respect like a drug.

"Well, the sheep said we are to be led to victory by a great warrior – a warrior that we don't know of, and can't know of until they come to us." He produced the black and white lotus, miraculously unwilted despite its age, and looked at it critically. "I don't like the sound of that. All my years of warfighting have taught me that you never have such a powerful unknown factor like that on the battlefield. And this warrior could be anybody! What if their loyalties don't lie entirely with me?"

"I share your concern, but I still don't see where the dagger fits into all this…" He held up a paw to silence her.

"I'm getting there!" Taking another aggressive sip from the bottle of spirits, he stabbed the dagger into the table between them.

"I needed a way to ensure the warrior is under my complete control; a leg-up on him, so to speak. And my research led me to this: The Dagger of Deng-Wa. It's an ancient relic of the enemy, and was once used with brutal efficiency against our ancestors. It's been said that it makes the person wielding it invincible; imagine my surprise when my spies in China revealed it had been rediscovered early last month."

Yuelun struggled to keep pace with these revelations, as she had, in actuality, placed little stock in the sayings of shamans and soothsayers. But her father continued, nonetheless.

"I am now convinced this conquest is destined to happen - how else could the stars align like they have? Every time I have a problem the solution falls right into my paws! We'll have an unstoppable warrior on our side, plus an invincible weapon to keep them in check - we can't lose!"

Having heard his plan, she couldn't decide if it was genius or downright stupid. Yuelun was leaning towards the latter at the moment; the way he had thrown up a fist at his last words made it clear her father thought it was the former.

"Only problem is, I haven't the foggiest how the damn thing works." He tapped at the blade playfully with his claws. "But I'm willing to bet the shaman knows."

"Shall I fetch Subutai?"

"No need, already sent for him."

As they waited for the old sheep to arrive, Yuelun chronicled the successful mission in greater detail; her father seemed more interested in steadily working at his drink than listening to the minutia of the negotiations.

When he entered the candlelit room, the argali's walking stick hit the ground abruptly as he saw the weapon embedded in the table between the two leopards, its constant vibrations slowly digging itself out of the wood.

"The Dagger of Deng-Wa! How is this possible?"

"Money, that's how. _Lots and lots_ of money." the big snow leopard said, chuckling at his own words.

"No… I had thought the weapon was lost to the ages, destroyed!"

The Khan finished the last of the drink and eyed his shaman suspiciously. "Is that _fear_ I hear in your voice, Subutai?"

The old hermit shook his head with unease. "I foresaw a favorable future for you, did I not? You are now playing with forces that are beyond your control; I will have no part in this."

The leopard's dark brow furrowed heavily. "That's a shame, as last I checked old man, it was your _duty_ to have a part in this."

"Hmph! You speak to me as if I was a common servant!" The Argali collected his walking stick, his shock since being replaced by anger. "Have you already forgotten that it was _my_ military stratagems that allowed your line to become rulers of all Mongolia?"

"Of course not!" the Khan spat.

"My duty to the Khanate has been paid in full, ten times over. I don't owe you a thing." With that, the aged sheep turned and left abruptly.

The Khan rose to pursue him, but he found standing to be something of a task with the immense amount of alcohol he had consumed taking effect. He started to topple over, but Yuelun quickly caught him and aided his balance.

"That old bastard!" he roared. Unable to walk, he threw his empty bottle which shattered against one of the guards outside; a fact discernible by an audible shocked yelp.

_Damn - why does this always happen when I just want one small drink?_

"Easy father, best you sit down now." Yuelun said between laughs; it was extremely amusing how vulnerable her father looked in this drunken capacity, as she was so used to him giving off an aura of grandeur and invincibility.

Seeing no point in trying to follow the defiant shaman, his rage subsided and he acquiesced to her demands, reclining against the closest of the many lavish floor pillows that were strewn about the Khan's quarters.

"Funny - it's almost like he knew I wasn't going to be able to follow him..."

"I wonder what tipped him off..." Yuelun joked.

The larger leopard flicked an annoyed paw in the direction the sheep had left. "Bah. He _will_ come around - I'll see to that."

"I'm _sure_ he will." the leopardess replied with even more sardonic flair, reclining against the pillow opposite him and producing a morin khuur from a nearby table.

"All that sarcasm's going to get you in trouble someday, girl." _You get a little drunk and everybody seems to think they can disrespect you all the sudden._

His daughter didn't rise to his challenge, responding instead by playing the first notes of a slow tune on the eccentric two-stringed instrument.

She was masterful in her playing, the blade of the bow gliding over the strings with a fluidity and control he could never hope to match; it was a good tune, one that his mother had played for him as a cub. Sleep started to creep up on him, and the music carried him straight into the realm of dreams.

* * *

In his vision he could see his goal: the subjugation of all China and the ascendance of his royal line in dynastic succession. It lay ahead of him, but between was a chasm so deep he could never hope to see the bottom. The sky was gold, as was the landscape around him, and the air he breathed was warm and comforting. But the chasm was not so.

Up from the abyss, a chilled wind that assaulted his nape made him stagger backwards. The pace of the music in the air changed, gaining momentum and depth in its cadence. Steeling himself, he found the courage to glance over the rim of the crevasse and began to make out lights below. At first, he thought it could be his eyes playing tricks when gazing into such darkness, but it was there. It was a green vaporous fog, that despite its weighty nature, was ascending to him at miraculous speed. When it reached the top of the chasm, it overtook the land around him in a crippling darkness, as it blotted out the sun entirely. The fog condensed into dark figures that surrounded him, the remaining vapors coalescing at their legs and disseminating upwards to the sky, cloaking them from his vision.

The music was expediting even more now, the uncontrolled tempo practically sprinting. The figures did not move, only surveyed him with their ominously large eyes. Those eyes… they were piercingly green, as if backlit by some unholy jade fire. The forms seemed content to remain concealed from his sight, slowly pacing, their gaze never leaving him. At last, the one that stood closest him started to approach, its movements uncanny and erratic, but still imposing. As it came closer, the vapor settled, revealing a dragon covered in ornate Chinese clothing… black and white clothing. He thought of the lotus flower at once.

_Could this be the warrior?_

The dragon made no move to attack, his comrades lingering in the veil of the fog with only their squinted luminescent eyes discernible. Suddenly, the leopard felt a slight weight in his right paw; he looked down to find himself in possession of the Dagger of Deng-Wa. It looked much different now, because in the place of the shiny metallic coloration, the blade was now glowing with a gold so deep he could practically swim in it. Still, the dragon did not move, only tilting its head slightly to one side, patiently waiting for the Khan's next action. For a while, the leopard was unsure of what to do.

The decision was made for him when the dagger in his paw lurched with a sudden magnetism, as if just now sensing the presence of the dragon before him. He tried to pull it back to his person, but instead his paw pads began to lose traction on the ground below. The dragon, still entirely unfazed, watched the bright gold weapon jerk toward him steadily as it won the tug-of-war with its wielder. As it neared the lizard's chest, the leopard tried especially hard to pull it away, but it was to no avail. At the last possible moment, the dragon began to raise an arm and the dagger flew right out of the Khan's paw, stopping with the point of the serpentine blade a mere inch from the tip of the creature's claw.

After levitating at that distance for several moments, the dragon tapped the blade precisely on its tip. The sound of a booming gong rang out in the leopard's ears, and a sea of red overtook the sunless sky. The music driving the dream climaxed, then settled into a somber slow drag. Still levitating between them, the mystical weapon started to bleed over from its hilt downward with a nefarious blood-red liquid. When the noxious substance had drowned out the gold completely, it hardened into a glassy maroon coating over the entirety of the blade. The dagger had always looked somewhat ominous, but now it just looked malevolent and dead, the pulsations that had once been running its length now absent.

The blade fell to the ground with a weighted thump that such a small object should not have been able to produce, and the eyes of the feline and lizard met. The dragon parted its maw as if about to speak, but the music ended abruptly, and the dream came to a premature end.

* * *

The Khan awoke with a start and saw that his daughter, having set the instrument aside, was shaking him awake.

"Sorry to wake you father, but you have a visitor."

The withdrawal after a few hours of sleep was hitting him in waves, the whole room looked blurry and her words sounded awkwardly distorted.

"Agggh! My head!"

_Gods above! Maybe the girl was right… just how strong was that stuff?_

Doing his best to stand and look somewhat presentable, he watched as Yuelun left and signaled the guards on her way outside to let the visitor in. For a moment he gazed back towards the dagger, which was still colored normally; it had since dug itself completely out of the table where he had been sitting earlier. He'd had many uncanny dreams before, but that one was a little too close to reality. Touching that dagger… it had done something with his mind, and he wasn't sure just what it was; he was put off by the fact that he had been jerked from a rather interesting dream, but the headache didn't make matters much better.

_This better be good._

Surprisingly, his esteemed visitor was no warlord or clan chief, but a female golden cat that hastily entered and saluted him palm-in-fist as she bowed. She was dressed ruggedly, but not cheaply; she had durable loose black pants and a deep fuchsia-red tunic that was ornamented with a pattern he did not immediately recognize. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a subtle gilded pattern that mocked the feathers of an avian; even the sleeves of the tunic, despite being rounded normally in form, were decorated to emulate the staggered fringes of wing feathers. At her ankles and waist were dark grey wrappings, and she had tape running across her paws in a similar fashion. The cat was evidently a martial arts practitioner of some kind, and the empty sheath slung over her torso indicated she regularly carried a weapon, probably a polearm by the looks of it.

His guards had been competent enough to disarm her, but they had still just left him incapacitated and alone in the room with a potential assassin.

_Someone's head is going to roll for that later._

He wanted to converse with her without slurring his speech, but he failed spectacularly.

"And just who the hell… might you be?"

Her wide feline orbs dawned over her still-saluting paws in shock; she was ostensibly not used to being addressed in such a manner.

"I'm- I'm…" She was tongue-tied at the leopard before her who smelled badly of drink and unwashed fur. He met the physical description of the Khan that she had anticipated, but she had not expected to see the ruler in such a… what was the best word? _Compromised_ state.

"Well?" The Khan's frustration, as well as his severe headache, were increasingly apparent with each passing moment.

After a few more moments of awkwardness, she dropped her salute at last and began to speak in a more controlled manner.

"My name is Mei Ling; I am a master of both Chi and Kung Fu... and I have a debt to you that needs paid."

The Khan smiled.


	10. Awakenings

Tigress' ears were the first part of her body to wake up; she heard nothing but a hot wind blowing against them.

Her coarse feline tongue brushed against the insides of her teeth, and she found her mouth to be unusually dry; her mind was starting to rouse itself from the grips of total unconsciousness. The first thing she remembered was the dream… it had been terrible.

She wished it was as simple as just dismissing it all as a stupid nightmare, but it wasn't. It had all felt so real; the demon she had encountered was revealed in the end to be a part of herself, and it had given a voice to the dark thoughts and fears that resided deep within her psyche. She kept writing it all off as the drugs putting thoughts in her head, but she couldn't help but reach the same dilemma again and again: had the substance acted as a hallucinogen, or a truth serum? Had she been lying to herself - and if so, for how long?

Her troubling thoughts were interrupted when she remembered her extremely unprofessional actions before she had blacked out for the last time.

_Unbelievable, no… Unacceptable! This is your own fault; you should know better than to drink just anything given to you, even from a Lord of China! Gods… the things I did! The things I said!_

The resulting internal tumult was just enough to jumpstart her outer senses, and her eyes finally shot open. Tigress regretted this immediately, as the reflection of the sun off the sand all around her was nearly blinding, and her eyelids were forced back down to a half-open squint; the scenery around her had changed drastically since she had fallen asleep.

_Sand... Well, that's decidedly bad._

Tigress started to try and lift herself from her current prone position, but was met with a few difficulties. Everything about her movement felt wrong, especially when she tried to shake her legs back to life. It was difficult to describe the sensation, almost as if a weight that should be there, simply wasn't. Finally getting the will to push herself up by planting her palms into the sand, she managed to get her knees back underneath her torso, holding her upright. It wasn't until she at last stood up that she noticed what exactly was wrong; the recognition of it hit hard and fast.

_Those bastards! My tail - they've cut off my tail!_

In a momentary panic, she reached both of her paws behind her back in a frantic search for her appendage; when she felt the recognizable fur-covered extremity at last, she breathed a heavy upward sigh of relief, gripping her tail with her paws firmly all the while. After this immediate concern was dispelled, another took its place: why hadn't she felt it there?

She had a hunch, and let go of her tail… watching in horror as its end dropped limply to the ground, unresponsive. Despite the blinding sunlight, her eyes were now as wide as possible.

_Seriously? What did I ever do to deserve this?_

This would to be a major detriment to her fighting style, as her tail was essential to keeping the balance required for her various acrobatic moves; she had to try and force it back into position. Biting her lower lip, she pulled up on the base abruptly, and there was a nauseating "pop" noise; she felt sensation in her tail once more, but it was accompanied by something else. Surging from the tip and running up each of the caudal vertebrae, she now felt a dull, throbbing pain from whatever injury had caused the dislocation.

Despite this, Tigress figured that the ability to use her tail was worth the discomfort, and brushed the pain to the back of her mind like she had conditioned herself to do. Forcing her focus to something else, she surveyed the rest of herself for damage. It was nothing but a few scratches here and there, but her majestic golden robes were now entirely shredded. While it was mildly upsetting, at the end of the day the clothing didn't affect her Kung Fu ability at all, so it was ultimately unimportant. Her ear twitched as something behind her had made a subtle movement.

Turning around, she found that she had woken up amid a small oasis, complete with scattered vegetation and a natural spring. A few feet from the edge of the water, she spotted what had to be Crane, although he wasn't as easily recognizable without his trademark headwear. He was seated unusually, resting on his tail feathers with his legs out in front of him on the ground; the bird was bent over inspecting his right aileron, and it looked to be causing him a great deal of pain. Gazing to the right of him, she spotted a large black and white mound protruding up from the sand that was undoubtably Po. She came up behind Crane, who must have known she was awake for some time now; he didn't even turn his neck when he spoke.

"I see you're awake. That's good… was wondering if you would actually come out of that coma." His words were empty and soulless, not due to malintent, but instead a complete lack of the energy required for emotion; he just kept working intently at his wing. The avian master's indifferent tone had actually sounded like Tigress' on a normal day. She immediately turned the attention from herself and to his injury instead.

"How bad is it?"

"Been better. It's just my right wing – I reckon I can still fight."

Tigress walked up behind him and took a closer look for herself. Running her paws over the white feathers, she gave her prognosis in her usual dispassionate inflection.

"Your wing is fractured in two places - it needs to be reset before the bones fuse together improperly." Just having the feline touching the wing lightly was giving him immense discomfort, and Crane started to go into a nervous panic.

"Hey, maybe that's not such a bad thing? It doesn't hurt when I don't touch it or move it…" She was ignoring his feeble pleas and placed her paws around the bird's wing, ready to push the fractures together in one motion. "Oh… okay then. So, how are we doing this? Are you just gonna coun-"

There was a loud crack, and bird screamed inconsolably, as Tigress had not waited for him to be "ready." She knew the surprise would take some of the edge off the immense pain the avian had to be feeling, but also hated the idea of listening to the bird wimp-out for even another second. Working quickly, she took off what was left of her tunic, and cut several strands out of it with her teeth. Wrapping them tightly around the injury, she ensured the fractured bones were now fixed into their proper position by the makeshift cast. As she tightened the last knots, she looked back at a deep indent in the sand that led as far south as she could see.

"Crane… where are we, and how did we get here?" It was a while before the avian could even open his eyes, let alone answer her.

"Inner Mongolia, I'd imagine." he grunted out. "The first thing I remember was these huge birds… had to be condors judging by the size of the wings and how much distance we covered."

He started relaxing his breaths, at last recovering from the shock of the feline's prompt first aid. "They dropped us here in this desert - to die, I presume - but they didn't count on this oasis being so close by." He had left out a large amount of detail on how he had pretty much saved her life more than once, as he hated the idea of Tigress feeling like she was "indebted" to him or something; he wanted to change the subject as soon as possible.

"What the hell happened to you guys? You've both been out for most of the day now, although Po will mumble something about 'stairs' every now and then."

"Are you aware that the Lord of Xiangyang crossed us?" the tiger issued promptly.

"Very much so, yes." he answered, rubbing the sizeable bruise on his head.

"He tricked us into drinking some substance, a kind of sedative - I should have seen it coming."

"How, exactly? Barring one other notable exception of the peacock variety, the Lords of China are usually trustworthy. Don't blame yourself for this mess."

"You don't understand, Crane. I have to; I broke my own rule number one."

"And that is…?"

"When you least expect it, _expect it_."

Crane at last looked at her, and he was instantly reminded just what material had constituted the cast binding his injury. While she was far from naked, wearing several different under-wrappings and her usual black silk legwear, Tigress had a lot more of her torso showing now. After growing accustomed to her wearing the long-sleeved golden tunic, Crane had actually forgotten what her stripes looked like; her auburn fur was now disheveled and full of sand. Tigress began to walk back in the direction of the meandrous impressions left by Po's body in the dunes.

"Where are you going?"

_Back to Xiangyang, to rip the horns out of that ibex's skull._

"To get the weapon, naturally." Tigress responded, her inward and outward priorities in conflict.

"Then you're going the wrong way." Tigress turned to see Crane shaking his head lightly. "The dagger is in Mongolia."

"How are you so sure of that?"

"Because it was a Mongolian that did _this_ to me." He gestured with his bad wing. "She was holding the dagger - curved like a snake, just like Po described."

At the mention of the panda's name for a second time, Tigress finally realized she was letting her pride blind her to reality; that was not the way of Kung Fu. She had been ready to set out after her petty revenge and hadn't even checked to see if her friend was okay.

"Gods! I forgot about Po!" the tiger exclaimed, dashing over to the unconscious bear. Finding him on his stomach, she quickly rolled him over.

When Po groaned and mumbled something about stairs, just like Crane had mentioned, she started to breathe a sigh of relief that he was indeed alive. Then she noticed the wound.

* * *

_Darkness._

Po found himself on solid ground for the first time after falling for countless hours. He was lying flat against something slick like ice, but not cold. Pushing up to his forearms, he looked down to see his own reflection below him. The imitative surface was also somewhat transparent, and below he could see momentary flashes of red light accompanied by low rumbling booms. He moved his paw to the floor to prod it, but the second his claw touched, there was a light crunching noise; he pulled his arm away to reveal a rapidly expanding crack.

_Bad._

The floor soon shattered and gave way beneath Po, but the ensuing drop was much shorter than he had expected. The wooden surface he had landed on was surrounded by a scene much more recognizable to him. Before, he could neither smell nor hear anything; now there was the overpowering redolence of molten metal and the ringing uproar of a battle below him. This unique combination of senses was familiar, but he did not fully realize where he was until he heard the voice.

"Your parents didn't love you."

Po saw Monkey and Crane fighting wolves below him; it was the fireworks factory where Lord Shen had been producing his cannons. He looked up from the floor at last to see the spiteful peacock himself, who was starting to grin psychotically at him.

"But here…"

Shen launched backwards, revealing the greatest of his dragon-headed weapons. The fact that Po knew it was coming and it hadn't changed a thing was infuriating.

"Let me… _heal_ you!"

As the peacock made to abrade the fuse with his steel talons, Po realized that something was different this time; something very important was missing.

_The wok! Where's the wok?_

It was the only reason he had survived the impact the first time; in its absence, he was doomed. Shen had just ignited the massive iron beast, and it breathed vigorous fire. The shot was coming at him now; all he could do was close his eyes and pray for a painless end. But the end did not come, as a flash of orange, black, and red had just jumped in front of him and caught the projectile.

_Tigress… she made it this time._

The red-hot cannonball in her paws was driving her backward, and the tiger's claws were carving depressions in the charred wood beneath her. Still pushing against it with all her might, Tigress turned her head back to the Dragon Warrior.

"Po! Get up!"

"What!?" he screamed in response, the sparks from the projectile flying back toward his face.

When the unrelenting force of the shot had pushed her almost to the edge with Po, Tigress knew she couldn't hold it back any longer and yelled in the panda's direction:

"Wake up Po!"

The burning iron sphere flew back out of her grasp and headed straight for his head; Po dodged the shot by leaping to the side but was enveloped by the comet-like tail of flame that followed the projectile. His vision was instantly rendered a panoramic of crimson; the echoes of Tigress' words were continuing to rebound through his mind, the red before him starting to yellow gradually into an orange. It wasn't long after when he started to make out shapes around him once more; he began to realize that the words weren't echoing, but being repeated again and again.

* * *

Tigress was shaking Po awake madly, having only increased her efforts when seeing his eyes start to open at last. The panda's chin was pinned close to his chest and this was the first thing he saw when he began to stir.

Po lurched from his half-awake state when he noticed a deep row of slashes starting up near his right shoulder before running across his chest and half way down his left side. Before even taking in his surroundings, he practically launched his arm up to inspect the wound for himself. His paw never made it that far; it had run straight into something – no, _someone_ – above him. Looking up, he saw it was Tigress, who was blocking his reaching paw with her wrist.

"Don't touch it, panda."

The tiger had a starkly different appearance: her whiskers were badly bent, her fur lumped awkwardly, and she was without her usual gold tunic, only deepening Po's confusion; she looked, for lack of a better term, like hammered shit. All around him there was only sand, and his mind rushed headlong into the conclusion that this was just the next phase of his nightmare. His adrenaline was spiking, and his mouth opened to accommodate his lungs that were quickly heading towards hyperventilation.

Fortunately, Tigress saw the uncertainty in his eyes and guessed correctly what he was thinking.

"Relax Po – it's not a dream; this is real. You're going to be alright." she said without breaking eye contact and showing him both of her paws to try and calm him.

In his panic attack, Po's eyes darted side to side, refusing to rest on the tiger above him. The panda would have never believed her if Crane hadn't paced up behind Tigress and started to speak as well.

"Well now, look who's decided to come back to the mortal realm!" the bird joked, although his mind was elsewhere in reality; he was still taking in just how quickly Tigress had lost her composure when seeing Po in possible danger.

_If it was me in his place, would she show that much concern for my wellbeing? Not likely._

When Tigress offered him a paw, Po stood upright for the first time in more than a day. Blood worked its way to his limbs and expelled the cold numbness that had taken up there, and his breathing started to return to normal. Crane chose to preempt the numerous questions the panda would surely have about what had transpired, and the avian filled him in the same way he had for Tigress. When he had finished, Po started to inspect the slashes on his body once more.

"But how did _this_ happen?"

"I'm sure it was one of those birds that carried you; the bastards had pretty huge talons, after all." the avian inferred.

The panda looked up to see that both of his fellow masters were looking at his chest with concern.

"It's okay guys… it doesn't hurt or anything." Po blatantly lied. In reality, he couldn't decide which was worse: the soreness or the infernal burning sensation.

Crane tilted his head to the side, giving the wound a second look. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I can't feel a thing – it's not even sore." The panda tried to sell off his ploy the best he could, hating the thought of the other two seeing him as weak or a burden.

"Strange…" Crane muttered quizzically, not sure if he was going to believe Po or not. "I suppose, based on the depth of the gashes, it might be possible that…" the bird started to mutter on about some medical theory that might as well have been in a foreign language.

Tigress saw Po was starting to poke at the wound again while listening to Crane, and she intruded into their exchange.

"Po – what did I say about touching it?"

He responded by jerking his paw away and looking at the ground timidly. Tigress could be incredibly forcible when she wanted to, without ever raising her voice.

To save the panda from further ridicule, Crane came up to the Dragon Warrior and started to motion him away with his remaining good wing.

"Doesn't matter if you can feel it or not, you should clean that wound out or it will get infected."

The panda took another downward glance at his chest, concerned.

As the two masters walked off in the other direction, Tigress remained behind; she had a suspicion that was eating at her. Checking to see that the others were out of sight, she raised her right paw up to her face and began to closely inspect it. She first looked at the gaps between the digits, then the front and back sides of her forearms.

_Nothing. Only one other place to check._

She held in a nervous breath of air, and abruptly unsheathed her claws; the fact that they were thickly coated with dried blood and small monochrome hairs confirmed her worst fears. The striped feline cast her gaze towards the sand below in unseen and unheard remorse.

_Monster._

It was the final, ultimate insult from fate itself: she had lost her self-control – her everything – and the victim had been none other than her friend… her _best_ friend. The feline started to gnash her teeth together, growling; it was intense, yet far too low for her distant companions to hear.

As remorse was tempered into fury, Tigress turned her extracted claws inward to her own palm; immediately, they started to dig mercilessly into the flesh of her paw pad.

_Monster… Monster… Monster..._

Her paw was now shaking with rage, the natural razors digging deeper into herself every second.

_Monster!_

Tigress' own blood ran down her wrist, staining the white fur of her inner forearm; but in her hardened, senseless paw, she felt nothing.

Absolutely nothing.


	11. Khanbaliq

Two spotted cats in a duel.

As she quickly dodged the disorienting jabs of her opponent's spear, Yuelun decided on an ambitious and unorthodox plan of attack. Somersaulting backwards to gain some distance from the center of the dusty open training area, she landed with her weight on her back leg. Keeping her stance low and her own guandao spear pointed towards her foe, she reassessed the state of the duel. The heavily-armored male snow leopard opposite her was in a similarly anchored position, waiting patiently for the next move in their current dance of combat.

_He's weak up high, and I'll certainly have the element of surprise… but I'll also be exposing myself. The risk is worth it – I'm doing it._

Like a spring being released, the leopardess launched forward as she shifted her weight back towards her male counterpart. Seeing her sprinting right for him, Ganbataar brought his weapon up across his upper body to parry any thrusting attack she would attempt. Catching the veteran warrior completely off-guard, she performed a spinning leap above his impenetrable defenses. While flying through the air, she watched as his shocked eyes followed her upward, and she couldn't help but smile. Making a slicing motion at the shaft of his guandao, she broke it cleanly in half; to solidify her victory, she planted a precise kick to the back of his head which sent the powerful warrior falling to the dust below. As soon as Ganbataar turned himself over, he was met with the end of the leopardess' weapon at his throat.

"You're getting slow in your old age, Gan!" Yuelun jested, pulling her spear away and offering her defeated mentor her other arm.

The grizzled snow leopard tossed the fragmented shaft of his own weapon aside with a grin, and accepted her paw so she could pull him from the dust.

"Hey, I'm not dead yet – maybe you've just gotten _that_ good. Imagine how my soldiers will react when I tell them that a woman has more skill than the lot of them!"

She looked at the ground with a toothy smile. "Indeed. Their skill in battle isn't as monumental as they think." _Among other things I'm sure._

At this moment, the golden cat that had recently arrived in the Mongol capital of Khanbaliq appeared in the training grounds. Both snow leopards immediately gazed in her direction.

"Have you met the newcomer yet?" Yuelun asked. "I don't trust her – the cat just shows up out of nowhere, and all of the sudden she's allowed free reign over Khanbaliq; it's not right if you ask me."

Inexplicably, Gan started to laugh.

"Something funny?"

"I reckon I could alleviate some of your concerns on the matter." he offered smugly. "I happen to trust her a great deal."

"Oh really? And why's that?" she asked, still lightly panting from the fight, following the martial arts master's movements closely with her deep purple orbs.

"She's my daughter."

Yuelun practically choked on the very air she was breathing; she quickly turned back to face the older leopard.

"What!? How!?"

The hardened warrior's smile lessened somewhat.

"Now that… is something of a story; I think I'll let _her_ tell you when she's ready." the leopard said as he received a stern gaze from his daughter. "Besides, the two of us aren't exactly on speaking terms."

Gan and Mei Ling made sure to keep their distance as they switched places in the training grounds, and the veteran watched on as the golden cat approached Yuelun. The newcomer gestured toward the leopardess with her own bladed polearm weapon, having since removed it from the sheath on her back.

"Able to best the Khan's favored warrior in single combat... you must be quite skilled; may I have the next spar with you?"

Still in shock from what she had just learned, the leopardess gave a slow, angled nod in response, and both cats readied their weapons. Mei Ling opted for a firm defensive stance, holding her spear behind her back and outstretching her other arm in front of her in a blocking position. Yuelun also held her polearm behind her, but pirouetted the shaft of the guandao between her digits as she slowly paced back and forth, staying parallel to her opponent.

Mei Ling noticed that the leopardess was dressed in entirely onyx-black clothing; this only made her unusually dark purple eyes stand out more. As she traced the loose, relaxed movements of her opponent's body, she also noticed that this Mongol was well above the usual size for a female of her species; she was evidently a half-breed of some type.

"Aren't you a little large for a snow leopard?" the golden cat inquired with a grin.

"Aren't you a little large for golden cat?" was the immediate response from the snow leopard.

The two hybrid felines smirked at each other; they had at least one thing in common. The warriors lunged forward at the same time and the duel had begun.

They were nearly polar opposites in combat: the leopardess striking and dodging with acrobatic flair and extreme maneuvers; the golden cat holding her ground, making only the required adjustments, and being entirely devoid of excess movement. A small audience of the Khan's palace guards started to watch the increasingly entertaining bout between the two female felines.

The sheer speed of the duel was proving to be hard to follow, as the two cats became engulfed in a cyclone of twirling wood and clashing metal. The red and black drapery of their tunics became like banners in a high wind; the dust in the air circled around them in a wide vortex, becoming thick enough to reveal rays of sun. One combatant would possess the upper-hand momentarily, only to yield it back to a determined counter-attack from the other.

After many chaotic parries that sent sparks flying off of the blade edges, Yuelun decided it was time to end this fight with a move that never failed her. Faking a high jab attack, she drew back, luring her opponent toward her; as part of a single motion, she rotated the entirety of her guandao around her back to be received by her other arm, and she promptly pressed the spearhead against the exposed side of the golden cat's neck.

_Gotcha._

"Yield!" the leopardess demanded.

"Look down." her opponent stated blankly.

Yuelun did, and found that the pointed end of the other feline's weapon was right over her heart; the golden cat had reacted to her intricate move with dizzying speed. In spite of herself, the leopardess' torso lurched with a confused chuckle.

"I don't think I caught your name, golden cat."

"Mei Ling."

"Yuelun."

Both felines lowered their weapons.

Mei Ling returned her spear to the sheath on her back, while the leopardess continued to hold hers idle in her paw. Seeing the fight at an end, most of the onlooking males started to clear out of the area. Yuelun had since taken notice of the other cat's unique clothing and wanted to break the silence that had sprung up between them.

"So, what's with the feather theme? It's all over your tunic..."

Mei Ling smiled. "Is that jealously I hear?"

" _Please_ , I wear all black for a reason; I have no need for useless excess."

_Funny. Your fighting style says otherwise, kitten._

Mei Ling would have rolled her eyes, but wasn't quite sure how the leopardess would react, and chose to not outwardly show her thoughts. She sighed and drifted her gaze to the side.

"In truth, it's to honor a friend. A _very good_ friend."

Yuelun recognized the look that was now on the golden cat's features; the leopardess had been in love a few times before.

"Just a friend? Are you sure that's all _he_ is?" she pried, catching the golden cat off-guard and making her eyes go wide in a sudden panic.

Unexpectedly, another newcomer to the training grounds saved the martial artist from further embarrassment. It was a tiger, the first male one that Mei Ling had ever seen, and he didn't look very happy as he approached Yuelun.

"Zhenjin – it's good to see you, brother. Have you met Mei Ling yet?"

The tiger, who was dressed far more colorfully than his sister, was ignoring Yuelun's greeting entirely and didn't even seem to register the golden cat's presence.

"You emptied nearly all our remaining coffers on a vibrating piece of scrap metal! I could have taken the town and claimed the stupid dagger for our father with only two-hundred men!"

"Oh, I'm _certain_ you could've, _Genghis_." she quipped with biting femininity. "Xiangyang was nigh-impregnable; and even if you did take the city, you would have alerted the _Tang ren_ to our plans. A mission like that required subtlety - something you are sorely lacking in, brother." she finished, tapping at his nose with her claw amusingly.

"I am very subtle!" Zhenjin roared, loud enough to draw the attention of guards clear across the massive courtyard area.

The two females exchanged a glance.

"I rest my case." Yuelun said through a prideful smirk.

Frustrated, the tiger shook his head angrily and pointed vindictively at his sister.

"Reckless actions like this are exactly why father is giving the Khanate to me and not you!" he spouted out, before turning to leave just as abruptly as he had arrived. It was Yuelun's turn to shake her head.

_Idiot. If I were a man, the Khanate would already be mine. Besides - father is the very one who ordered the mission in the first place; it's not surprising that he didn't entrust such information to you._

She gestured mockingly with her eyes towards the retreating tiger.

"Behold: 'The Next Khan of Mongolia.' Just _magnificent_ , isn't he?" she said with as much sarcasm that could possibly be jammed into so few words. "Please, just… pretend none of that ever happened."

As Mei Ling smirked with her arms crossed, Yuelun started pacing around the area, spinning her weapon around her body with noticeable frustration. She eventually settled the wide of the metal spearhead in front of her face to see her reflection.

"My father, the Khan, spends most of his days trying to instruct that fool on how to govern a kingdom instead of someone… _more qualified_." The leopardess just kept examining her own reflection as she spoke. "He might as well not even be my father; he didn't teach me how to fight, didn't teach me how to read, didn't teach me how to live life. All of that – Gan did for me; he's my _real_ father."

_Although, one would think he'd trust me enough by now to tell me he had a daughter…_

"Guess that makes us sisters, then." Mei Ling joked offhandedly as she inspected her own paw. Yuelun at last lowered the reflective blade from her face and turned back to the golden cat, showering her in the penetrating gaze of her lilac eyes.

"Well then, _sister_ , what brings you to Mongolia?"

* * *

"I don't understand – the clan armies should have been here by now." the Khan said as he toyed with some of the oddities that hung from the ceiling of the court shaman's yurt. "I hope the chieftains aren't conspiring against me… _again_."

The shaman looked up from the table where he was transcribing an ancient text with a sigh.

"Why don't we talk about what you actually came here for."

"Fine; have it your way." The snow leopard quit his aimless meandering around the yurt at once and approached the sheep. "There's something you're not telling me, old man. What do you know about the dagger?"

"It's not what I know; it's what I remember – what others have forgotten."

The Khan rolled his eyes. "I've heard the stories: the 'amazing power' and how it 'leaves no survivors' – why wouldn't we want such a force of nature like that in our arsenal?"

The argali calmly finished the transcription of the document before answering.

"Fascinating."

"What? What's fascinating?" the Khan spat out, annoyed that the shaman had sidestepped his question entirely.

"What history chooses to immortalize, and what it does not record – all people care about is how efficient something is at taking lives. What the stories will not tell you, however, is what the dagger does to the wielder."

"And that is…"

For the first time, the argali looked the leopard directly in the eyes.

"It destroys people - corrupts them beyond all recognition; the warlords who once wielded it were driven to madness. Having that power... it will only bring you pain."

The rosette-spotted feline leaned in close, the two fangs that protruded up from his maw now only inches from the sheep's snout.

"They were weak; I am strong."

Feeling heat of the Khan's breath on his face didn't fail to intimidate Subutai, but he recovered quickly.

"I assure you, those before you thought the very same - it is beyond the control of mortals. Do not let the lust to immortalize your own name blind you."

The leopard backed away slightly and straightened his tunic.

"I see. You think I'm weak too – unfit to be Khan!"

The sheep exhaled loudly, now showing his own frustration.

"That is not what I am implying at all!"

"No, it's all right… _it's just fine_. I will overlook these words between us, despite their treasonous nature. True, you have helped the Khanate in the past, but you are not infallible."

The shaman hung his head, shaking it in defeat; he could see the pointlessness in this discourse.

"If this is how it's going to be, we have nothing more to speak of." the sheep nearly mumbled.

The Khan started to move toward the exit.

"Indeed – it won't be long until I prove just how wrong you are."

Before the ruler left the large tent, he turned his head back to the sheep.

"Oh, and Subutai,"

"Hmmm?"

"Speak to me like that in front of my daughter again, and I will not hesitate to kill you where you stand."

* * *

As he left the yurt, the Khan's fur was reacquainted with the assertive chill of the Mongolian winds; he saw that Gan was waiting for him nearby. The other leopard had a relaxed stature, arms crossed as he leaned against a post.

"Well, how did it go?" the warrior inquired as he pushed off the post to stand up straight.

"Nothing has changed, the sheep will not give me what I desire."

The two started back towards the palace at the center of town.

"Shame, that. But I'm sure we won't need him, my lord." Gan said, trying to feign genuine interest in the matter; he never put much stock in the mystical, only in the more physical efforts of warfare.

"Agreed." The two walked for a few moments before the ruler spoke again.

"By the way, where the hell have you been all morning?"

"Ensuring our daughters crossed paths. I figured since they have so much in common-"

The Khan nodded in sudden understanding, and Gan knew he need say no more.

"How is she taking it, your daughter?"

"Around here, she still sticks out as if she was furless, but she knows her place. Anything you require, she will be honor-bound to see it done."

"So you trust her to keep to an oath of servitude?"

"We are nothing without our honor; for us warriors, honor and loyalty are one in the same. I trust her years in China haven't diluted that belief."

"You could have just said 'yes' Gan."

The two leopards chuckled as they walked up the steps of the Khanbaliq palace, having reached their destination. Several pairs of guards nodded to them respectfully as they proceeded through multiple entryways. Turning off from the main hallway, they entered a large room; the centerpiece of the well-lit area was a massive map that sat on a table. The Khan and his trusted military adviser each stood at opposite sides of it.

"Please tell me you have something good for me." the Khan said through an exhale.

Gan immediately started shifting small multicolored rocks around the map, the meaning of which only the two of them fully understood.

"Just because we've been playing a long time, that doesn't mean the game can't change. The Chinese army has been bolstered by even more mercenaries as of late; rhinoceroses from India. An army packing that much heavy infantry will have to be lured into the open and destroyed - no small feat."

"True - but all that armor won't mean shit if we can outmaneuver them."

Gan nodded, and pushed several of the rocks into the northern Chinese part of the map.

"But no matter how we attack initially, I believe we will have to seize control of this region _here_." the strategist said, tapping a specific point near the center of the map. The Khan leaned in over the map to read the name of this all-important territory.

"Xiangyang... Well, that'll never do." He scratched at his neck as Gan looked up from the map with surprise. "I've already agreed to a non-aggression pact with the lord there."

"Gods - what in the hell for?"

"It was part of a monetary arrangement to acquire an item of... _immense_ value to me."

_So the rumors are true. He's gone and given the Khanate's money to a Chinese lord..._

"If that is the case, then it seems we will be taking our coin back by force - we need the city; it would give us a base of operations to strike at the _Tang ren_ below the Han and Yangtze." Gan explained, tracing his claw along the path of the rivers in question on the map.

The Khan couldn't argue with his reasoning, and bared his teeth slightly in internal frustration.

"Yuelun reports that the 'city' is more of a fortress - stone walls, reinforced gates, and a standing army for a garrison. It'll be a tough nut to crack; how do you plan to take it?"

The warfare maven gave a wary shrug. "Still working on it. My first thought involved a little bit of subterfuge, but with the size of the army we'll have by then, that won't be an option..."

"Indeed; our intentions will be obvious long before we get anywhere near Xiangyang."

"This may be the least of our worries at the moment, as there is still no word from the other clan armies, nor this 'great warrior' you keep going on about. Might I remind you that it's still not too late to call off this invasion?"

_No... not Gan too... He's no better than Subutai. Can no-one else see that I am destined to lead us to victory?_

"Don't give up on me now, old friend. It was once said that my grandfather couldn't take the Great Wall, and yet today it lies in Mongol territory; we will overcome the odds just as our ancestors have for centuries."

Gan nodded, conceding this to his Khan.

Before they could continue their strategic planning, a jackal servant entered the room and began to speak.

"My Khan, your-"

The jackal's words got stuck in his throat, as the leopard he was addressing had just launched a sword at his head without hesitation; the stunned canine looked up at the blade now stuck into the wall between his ears, less than an inch from the top of his head.

"What did I say about interrupting me when I'm planning?"

As the Khan started to approach angrily, the jackal waved his paws frantically. "Yes yes, I know, it's just..."

"It's just what!?" he growled, raising a paw to strike.

"Your wife - she's requested your presence at once; your children are trying to kill each other again!"

The ruler pulled away from the servant, his eyes meeting with the other leopard's, searching for an understanding sentiment.

"It's always something, isn't it?"

Gan smiled. "Shall we finish this later, then?"

"I wouldn't bother waiting for me; it's turning out to be just another _fine_ day in Khanbaliq."


	12. Smoke on the Horizon

What Po really needed was a quiet place to sit down and think everything out - all the better were it over a nice bowl of dumplings.

Unfortunately, any food he could hope to find would undoubtedly be a desert mirage. But silence... there was plenty of that. Too much of it.

The panda had started to pass the time by wordlessly observing his fellow masters as they walked in front of him a short distance away. Po had rarely seen Crane do that much walking before, and witnessing his gawky avian stride in detail was a novelty in and of itself. If he really looked closely, he could see that the bird was constantly muttering to himself, stopping only occasionally to awkwardly sneeze against the sand-filled gusts of wind.

A little ahead and to the right of the bird was Tigress, whose stride had always seemed anything but feminine; but it was somehow even more wrathful than usual. Her arms no longer covered by sleeves, Po had noticed that there were red stains on her forearm that - uncannily - seemed to run up instead of down. He had tried to ask her about this, but she either hadn't heard him, or had intentionally disregarded his every word; she hadn't even turned around.

Tigress was far more focused on the horizon.

The striped feline had caught the scent of fire long before she saw the billowing black cloud; the opposite had been true for Crane. Po was still much more focused on coming to grips with his present reality, and was lost in his thoughts as the three of them headed towards the beginning of the steppe. Nothing made any sense; Crane was now wearing Tigress' clothes as a bandage for some unknown wound, and the panda had one of his own, of which he was just as clueless about the origin. As they got closer and closer to the source of the fire, the sand beneath them gradually became thick grass and underbrush, but there was still not a single tree in sight.

"So... what do you guys think it is?" Po asked openly, as they had all been looking at the same thing for a while now.

"Doesn't matter." Crane answered. "Smoke means fire. Fire means other people. Other people can point us in the right direction to complete the mission."

Tigress said nothing, but her silence seemed to indicate she agreed with the bird's reasoning.

The three masters continued on as golden sunlight cascaded through the dry grasses all around them. After fording a small trickle of water that could barely be called a stream, they realized that the smoke was emanating from a small mud-brick village. Even from here, they could see that the buildings were being burned, but they did not quicken their pace until they heard the screams; it was still in the process of being razed to the ground, and there was a chance to save the civilians.

The scene was complete chaos. The marauders were torching buildings left and right, snatching anything valuable they could get their paws on; the villagers were running for their lives to seek shelter. The warriors of the Jade Palace were all too accustomed to such circumstance, moving through the midst of the settlement with a forceful bearing.

As the masters continued moving deeper into the settlement, both groups stopped what they were doing to watch the strangers who had miraculously just strolled in from the open desert. When they had reached the village center, where the bandits had gathered into a group a few dozen strong, one of them began to step forward. He was a lynx, as evidenced by the tall tufts of black fur above his ears. The outlaws behind him were a collective of inter-mingled canines and felines; mainly jackals, wolves, and snow leopards that wielded an array of small armaments and bows.

The lynx studied the three newcomers carefully for a moment before speaking.

"I see the Chinese have decided to grace us steppe rats with their benevolent presence!" he mocked, taking a derisive false bow in the process.

Po was about to speak, but Tigress came from behind the panda with an assertive paw on his shoulder.

"I'll handle this."

As she stepped forward to answer the lynx, many of the villagers were still scattering between buildings. The leader took notice of Tigress, who was still lacking outer clothing on her upper half, and whistled suggestively.

"Wow… I like what I see! Care to take any more of that off, Stripes?" he taunted as his men chuckled wildly behind him.

"Turn around and leave now." she deadpanned, ignoring his remarks entirely.

"Or what?" he asked, still laughing.

The tiger didn't flinch as he'd hoped she would.

"Or," she paused, glaring at him. "I feed you your teeth."

The bandit leader was surprised by her boldness, but responded to her aggression with some of his own. Coming even closer, he stopped his face only inches from hers.

"And just _how_ are you gonna do that, bitch? You're outnumbered ten-to-one!"

Tigress began to growl.

"I welcome those odds."

Astounded by her boldness and adequately provoked, the lynx launched an impulsive jab; before the blow touched her face, Tigress' paw flew up and secured his wrist with crushing force. The rest of the bandits were stunned; they'd never seen speed like that before.

" _That..._ was a mistake." she menaced through her bared teeth.

The newly-widened amber eyes before the lynx revealed a fury that devoured his gruff bravado instantaneously.

The leader tried to free his appendage by bringing over his other paw, but it was no use. Even pulling with both arms, he couldn't free himself from Tigress' grip. She could have used her claws, but she didn't need to: the lynx's wrist was already reduced to a soup of shattered bone and cartilage. Immediately following this, she headbutted him into the ground - the lynx arriving in the dirt with a few less teeth, the tiger having kept her promise. The speed and fluidity with which she downed the bandit cast an intimidating pall over the rest of them.

On cue, Crane and Po joined their tiger companion in fighting stances to face the rest of the outlaws. Seeing their leader writhing from pain in the dirt, clutching what was left of his right paw, they responded by filling the air with the sound of tightening bowstrings. Now in her defensive stance, Tigress assessed the threat immediately and looked to the avian beside her.

"Crane, do you have this?"

The defensive master narrowed his russet orbs, matching her chilled spite with his answer.

" _Always_."

Po was surprised that, even with his injury, Crane had just sprung forward of the two mammals and was now in a perfect deflective position.

His base was wider than usual, his left wing curled and extended out in front of him. The avian knew his right wing was weakened, weighted down by injury. He offset its deficiency by recoiling it up behind his head and inverting it off to his left side, widening the spaces between each of his outer black fringes; the feathers were nearly jumping from the increased blood-flow to his extremities. He had become as large and as wide as possible - a shield of sorts. His head hung down in patient anticipation of the release of the oncoming arrows.

"What the hell are you waiting for? Kill them!" the lynx screamed from the ground below Crane, breaking the extended silence.

The unanimous snapping release of the projectiles came at last. More than thirty wooden shafts were headed straight for the three masters, traveling at speeds much faster than any Chinese bow could produce.

Crane swept his legs forward in a half-stride, setting his ailerons into circular motion around his form. He brought a premature termination to each individual arrow's flight path, shattering, deflecting, and redirecting the wooden missiles with the precision of a god; an immovable rock dividing an oncoming tide of wood. The only thing making his movements discernible was the golden fabric tied to his right side.

Tigress had known what was coming, and was already calculating a strategy in her mind for the coming melee engagement.

_Thirty-three assailants; weak-points at the clavicle, knees, and underarms. Crane will be tired after all this deflecting – he should face no more than seven by himself. That leaves more than twenty for me and Po._

The tiger master turned to the Dragon Warrior at her right; she didn't have much time, so she made each word count.

"Po – take ten to your side, I'll take ten on mine, then meet in the middle; aggressive, high-speed flanking. Understood?"

"Got it!"

To add further insult to injury – or really, just further injury to injury – Crane caught the last arrow with his talons, and gyrated it up and around his wing to launch back away from himself… and straight into the bandit leader's thigh.

As the lynx shrieked in pain on the ground, the marauders and Kung Fu warriors collided around him in a furious affray; the past few minutes of building disdain were now being unleashed in a glorious flood of blood and adrenaline. Po and Tigress knew that to maintain the advantage, they would need to drop the thugs quickly, to prevent them from bringing their superior numbers to bear.

Protecting the flanks of Crane, they started attacking the lowlifes with everything they had; the circumstances were ideal for tiger style, as Tigress excelled in ending fights as quickly as possible. She unleashed devastating sidekicks to the necklines of two wolves followed by a blocked sword strike from a snow leopard. Holding the swordsman by the wrist, she used his blade to parry a vertically slashing spear, then an axe attack; when her puppet's usefulness had run its course, Tigress cleanly dislocated the leopard's arm. The resulting snap was heard by Crane, who was busy fending off three wolves with battle-axes nearby.

A much larger wolf brute approached and horizontally withdrew a two-handed saber from his back, which Tigress had to quickly recoil backwards to avoid; she briefly felt the whoosh of the passing heavy blade in her whiskers as her paws touched the ground behind her. From this low position, she immediately sprung back up, catching an incoming arrow with her right paw along the way. The sound of metal splitting air announced that the bandit with the large saber was swinging downwards at her. She went straight through his attack by rolling forward and to the left of him, planting the arrowhead behind his shoulderblade as she passed – a ruthless immobilizing strike.

All of this taking place in a matter of seconds, Tigress glanced over to see the source of the fired arrow and saw a dhole that was readying yet another missile from his quiver. Disorienting the rush of new assailants into her part of the fight, she executed a perfectly timed Tahlia Leap up and over them; she had intended to land on top of the dhole, but her tail injury caused her to miscalculate, and she landed right in front of the bandit as he was about to fire. In an instant reaction, the canine let the arrow loose, but not before the striped feline had punched his bow to the side; the manipulated shot took down yet another wolf, who had been coming up behind Tigress with a dagger-axe.

His primary weapon useless, the dhole reached for the handle of his shortsword and started to unsheathe it. In a one-two jabbing attack, she first punched at his wrist, forcing the blade back down into the sheath; her second strike was a throat-punch that went straight beneath the jawline and sent him to the ground on his back, motionless.

There was no time to rest, as she was still surrounded by many of the brigands.

On the other flank, Po had taken out no less than four of them right away, belly-gonging the first wolf to reach him into his canine companions; he had winced immediately after, once more feeling the wound he had on his chest.

_Gonna have to stop forgetting about that..._

Shaking it off and building from this sudden momentum, he rocketed upward to unleash his "Feet of Fury" into the faces of a few jackals that had been foolish enough to attempt a leaping attack on him. No sooner had he done this before he looked to his left to assess the state of his allies: Tigress was fighting nearly a dozen of the enemy on the far flank, looking entirely undaunted; the avian master was still holding his own down the middle with an improvised iron-fan misdirection technique, but could use some help.

"Hold on Crane - I've got ya covered, buddy!"

Ducking under a thrown sword that came flying at him end-over-end, Po grabbed a nearby leopard cat by the tail and begun to spin him through the air; having built up significant inertial force, he hurled the screaming catamount towards Crane, taking down most of the assailants in the bird's part of the fight. The avian showed his thanks with a nod to the panda, before both had to go back to dodging more attacks.

Meanwhile, Tigress was beginning to tire, as she was still facing the lion's share of the bandits alone; she knew it was time to bring the two flanking attacks to the center as one. After sending the canine teeth flying out of a wolf's maw with a leaping upward kick, the tiger yelled over to the bear-style master.

"Po! Double-Death Strike!"

Even in the heat of battle, the bear's eyes lit up with excitement. Downing the last two of his opponents with an elbow jab to the face and a palm strike to the chest respectively, he rushed over to meet the tiger master.

The move made them all but invincible, akin to the Wu Sisters when they formed their own pinwheel of death. Paws locked, they sent opponents flying backwards in all directions. Po could be the anchor, giving the tiger free reign to deal out a volley of bone-crushing kicks; alternately, the muscular feline could be the pivot point herself, swinging the panda's immense weight around like a massive bludgeon.

The two Jade Palace heavyweights, one of whom embodied this word in several ways, kept at this until the dumbfounded and terrified bandits finally broke into a full-on rout from the village. An exhausted Crane at last dropped to his tail feathers, struggling to recover his normal breathing. Po was looking around enthusiastically, amazed that they had just prevailed in such spectacular fashion.

"Another glorious triumph for the forces of justice!" he exclaimed, searching for a similarly elated sentiment about Tigress - but he found none.

Po looked on as the tiger was approaching the only bandit that hadn't been able to limp away, the leader, her paws balled into fists.

_That's never good._


	13. Unbalanced

_Thud._

The limp, crippled body of the lynx slammed into the wall of the nearest building; he emitted a feint wheeze as he hit the dirt once more. The tiger who had thrown him there approached, ready to strike again.

"Why did you attack these people - because you can? Because you think they're weaker than you?"

Propping himself up frailly by his elbows, he shook his head at the dust below as he coughed specks of red into it. He issued no response.

"Answer me!"

The tiger jabbed her paw at the arrow shaft protruding from the bandit's thigh, driving it deeper and sending a shockwave of pain through his body. Nonetheless, the lynx was defiant.

"I won't tell you a damn thing, freak!"

Tigress grabbed the cat, who had been trying to crawl away, by the throat and lifted him up so he couldn't touch the ground with his paws.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you. Would you mind saying that _again_?"

An answer was impossible, as the lynx's windpipe was being crushed. A bird and a panda watched on, petrified by the sight before them.

The lynx, somehow still trying to resist, emitted a fanged feline hiss; Tigress responded with a vocalization of her own that nearly shook down the buildings of the village. It was not a growl, but instead a thundering roar, the likes of which Po had never heard – it elicited a pathetic whimper from the lynx. The larger feline had just proved her unquestioned dominance.

Tigress deeply desired to snuff out this wretched being at her claw tips; the tiger was quickly losing herself. Adrenaline surged through her, her inner rage begging to be spent. The fight had awoken, freed something in her; a scale that had slowly been shifting for some time now, had just been tipped beyond her ability to control.

_He is garbage... nothing but garbage... he tried to harm me, he tried to harm my friends!_

Her grip around his throat was starting to tighten. It would be so easy… his eyes were starting to roll back slightly.

The Dragon Warrior was utterly mortified.

_I can't believe it – she's actually going to do it._

Po had seen enough. "Tigress – he's defenseless!" the panda pleaded.

The lynx was starting to struggle less against the death grip of the striped feline. She wasn't letting up.

"Put him down!" Po demanded.

The enraged tiger only half-turned her head back in his direction, so that the panda could see her muzzle but not her eyes, which were now slits.

"Back off, panda - I'm handling this!"

Po closed his eyes for just a second, summoning something within himself.

"With all due respect, Tigress, that's _master_ panda to you."

There was a sudden moment of clarity – an opening of sunlight within a thunderstorm of rage.

_What... what am I doing?_

Tigress dropped the bandit leader at once, backing away in sudden disgust of what she was about to do.

The avian master was awestruck as he watched the surreal events before him.

_Well I'll be damned._

The Dragon Warrior had just spoken in an authoritative tone entirely foreign to their ears.

Eyeing the panda with guarded agitation, the tiger gave him a halfhearted palm-in-fist salute and stepped aside to allow Po access to the lynx, who had since pissed himself in abject terror.

Tigress watched as Po came up and got down on one knee near their prisoner, talking to him in an understanding tone. As the rage drained from her blood, she began to think clearly again. Though she wasn't showing it outwardly, she was actually proud of Po and ashamed of herself; she knew she had been out of line, and understood how much guts it must have just taken for him to call out his friend like that. At the end of the day, the panda stood up for what he believed in, no matter what.

_Even against me._

She couldn't help but respect that immensely.

Crane was equally surprised at the bear's actions, but also just as proud of his new master; it reminded the avian master of how truly good Po was at heart. The Dragon Warrior was unbelievably compassionate and forgiving - he had even been willing to completely absolve the peacock that had committed genocide against his race.

_Who else could do that but Po?_

This was perhaps the greatest trait of the Dragon Warrior on full display: he had just superseded _Tigress_ , of all people, to show respect, _mercy_ to someone who most assuredly hadn't deserved it.

The villagers were now starting to emerge from their hiding places, and while thankful to the masters for saving their lives, they were demanding the lynx's head on a pike; Po began to busy himself keeping the mob at bay. It wasn't long until Crane had to join him.

Tigress was falling into a pensive state over what had occurred, staring blankly at her own paws, as if gazing right through them. She had not been herself.

_Why?_

Her newfound curiosities coupled with the fear of her own nature was starting to level an unhealthy weight on her mind; these thoughts had no place in her line of work. How long would it be until she would be just as compromised as Po had been in Gongmen City? It was getting worse by the second.

_I need to get out of here._

Uncharacteristically, Tigress abruptly left, unannounced; seeing the feline's departure, Po decided to follow her.

"I'm going to talk to her - something's not right, Crane."

"Obvious as that is, what are we going to do about this, um, _situation_?" the bird asked, gesturing to the screaming villagers all around him.

"Won't be but a moment – you can handle it, buddy!"

The bird's head perked up from the crowd. "I… can?"

He left the avian alone to fend off the bloodlusted mob – probably not the most advisable move – and walked back through the village and near the stream they had crossed earlier. Seeing the feline stop near the water with her arms crossed and looking away from him, Po started to close the distance on her timidly.

Sensing his presence, the tiger sighed inwardly, as she wasn't surprised that Po had followed her; she had practically expected it, actually.

"Tigress, if this is about the whole 'master' thing, I'm sorry. I just didn't wa-"

"It's not." she cut him off. "And don't apologize for that; it's about time we start taking our new roles seriously."

He was about to counter, but she turned, holding out a paw and shaking her head to keep him from doing so. She figured she might as well speak her mind, as there was no better person to confide in than the Dragon Warrior.

"Po, I feel that I'm… _unbalanced_. I fear it will jeopardize our mission."

Po was becoming a little uncomfortable, nervously tapping his rounded claws together, his stance rocking back and forth.

"Unbalanced? Like… physically?" he offered with an outstretched paw.

"No – not like that. Ever since we've been here, I haven't been myself."

_Tigress and emotions? Oh dear._

"I don't know what you're talking about – I'd say you've just been 'normal Tigress,' nothing too out of the ordinary."

_Po Ping, you are the world's worst liar._

"But maybe 'normal me' isn't really me." she spat out.

This broke Po's brain a little. He wasn't prepared for any such foray into existentialism.

_Okay, there is definitely something wrong with her._

He finally took the chance to fully take in Tigress' present condition. To be frank, she looked vulnerable, and not just because he could see a lot more of her white fur than he was used to. She did seem, in her own words, unbalanced. He'd only seen her this way a handful of times before, like after her battle with Tai Lung, or when he'd sacrificed himself to defeat Kai. She was distressed... volatile - but over what, he could only guess.

"What is that supposed to mean?" he asked after an extended pause.

She shook her head and walked over to sit near the edge of the stream. It was surreal to see someone who was nigh untouchable on the battlefield so unsettled.

"Do I strike you as a violent person? Are my actions warranted?"

Po nearly rolled his eyes. "Can we just put that behind us? I know you weren't really going to kill that guy."

_Well… that might have been a lie._

"Are you so sure about that? After all..." She got up from where she was sitting and placed her paw on the panda's chest near his wound. "I did _this_ to you, Po."

"Come on, you don't know tha-"

She had just unsheathed her claws, so he could see the damning evidence for himself. Their eyes met in a momentary silence; he thought he could see the tiger's looking for something in his own, and it frightened him. The panda shook off his initial surprise quickly to comfort her.

"It... it was not your fault. We were not ourselves back then."

She began to walk back to where she had been sitting before, but this time Po followed her. She didn't speak for a while, just watching the water flow by.

"That substance - whatever it was - it was eye-opening in a way... made me think about what my purpose is."

She started to ball her fists in annoyance, but it was unclear to Po if it was directed toward him or the tiger herself. Tigress looked at the infinite expanse of steppe and desert for a few moments, took a deep breath to calm herself, and answered in the best approximation of her typical indifference she could muster.

"I've been searching within myself lately, trying to meditate on things; all I find is anger."

There was a long silence before Po spoke.

"Well... I'm no Oogway, but I might have some words of wisdom for you." he said quietly.

The tiger was still looking to the horizon, but her ear twitched a little to show she was listening. A gust of wind that blew over her and towards Po revealed that her usual fragrance had since turned to a heavier natural musk.

"Nobody is going to judge you for not being an emotionless object every second of your life."

Tigress got up again and started to walk back towards the village, unable to look Po in the eyes.

"The world needs more people like you, Po." she said as she passed.

It shocked Po to see that she had remained unconvinced. As the tiger continued pacing away, he noticed the Crane had rejoined them; the bird quickly announced why he had sought them out.

"I finally convinced the villagers to let the poor fool live. I talked to him for a while... got some information out of him. I know where we need to go to find the ruler of Mongolia – a place pretty far southeast of here called Khanbaliq."

_It's amazing what you can get out of someone when you aren't trying to kill them..._

"Then we better get going." Tigress answered abruptly, starting to walk back toward the village.

Crane knew right away from her weak tone that something unusually emotional had transpired before his arrival. He moved closer to the panda.

"Did I… _interrupt_ something?"

"No." Po replied emptily, unable to take his eyes from the increasingly distant tiger.

Despite knowing that the true answer was undoubtedly "yes," Crane could see that this wasn't his business, and started to follow the feline master, leaving the Dragon Warrior alone.

Po was still glued to the ground, frozen in shock from the whole conversation. He had never, not in a million years, expected Tigress to be so inconsistent and conflicted like she had just been. Something had the striped cat fixed, so much so that she was starting to question herself, and that scared him tremendously; it scared him because he knew exactly what it was like. He knew how it felt to have questions that threaten to eat you alive, how it felt to be kept awake every night confined to disharmony and discord.

But while Po's own struggle for answers had manifested itself in the form of Lord Shen, he feared that Tigress had no such single adversary to guide her frustrations toward; instead, she could only become her own worst enemy.

As the tiger walked back through the burnt houses of the village, she kept her head down in distraught contemplation; she almost didn't see the female musk deer that was standing in her path. Stopping to avoid running into the ungulate and raising her head, Tigress saw that the deer was outstretching something to her - a gift, which appeared to be some kind of blue cloth.

"What's this?"

The deer only smiled widely at the muscular feline. "Thank you."

"For what?" Tigress asked confusedly, having completely forgotten about the fight as she took the bundled cloth into her paws.

"For saving our lives, of course! You have our people's eternal gratitude; surely you must be favored by Kunkh Tengri, lord of the skies."

Tigress just nodded respectfully in response, and as the deer returned to her family, she spread out the cloth to look at it; it was a dark midnight-blue tunic of the finest Mongolian textile work. Like her previous outfit, it had a drapery between the legs, which was emblazoned with a bright gold symbol that she didn't recognize.

It was a gift worthy of royalty. The tiger looked back over at the deer, who was now hugging her parents, and she was reminded of another gift - one that she would never receive.


	14. Seeing Red

The court servant of the Khan cautiously entered the guest quarters of the Khanbaliq palace and, with night having already fallen over the steppe, was annoyed by the lack of light.

_Must it be so dark in here? They could have used a few more candles…_

Gazing into the near pitch-blackness of the room, he was about to turn and leave, concluding that the person he had come to find was not there; but a moment later, the sudden manifestation of two bright yellow orbs in the center of the room proved him wrong. The abruptness of it had startled the gaunt desert jackal, and he felt fused to the ground beneath his paws by their gaze. The feline within the room said nothing, but had evidently just struck a blade with a whetstone; the upward shooting sparks illuminated her face for just a brief second, and the piercing sound of abraded metal further startled her canine visitor.

"The Khan has requested your presence in the citadel at once." he stated, much less confidently than he had envisioned in his head.

The darkness of the room issued no verbal response, only another striking of metal and shooting of sparks.

The jackal audibly swallowed.

The next thing the canine heard was a subtle "thunk" noise as the spear the feline had been sharpening was planted blade-first into some unseen wooden surface. The saffron eyes started to draw closer, and eventually the torchlight from the outside hallway revealed the form of a golden cat. The jackal's fear that had been building dissipated somewhat when she gave him an unexpected gentle smile; she had not been watching him with menace, but with wordless curiosity instead.

"Lead the way then." she said genially, nudging her head towards the building's exit.

_This cat has no idea how terrifying she can be. Is she oblivious to the fact that she could snap me in half like a twig?_

The feline that was now following the servant was, indeed, somewhat perplexing in this way; her imposing muscular build and deadly proficiency in combat made her seem dangerous, but if you ever got to see her up close, she was obviously no monster. That warm smile he had just seen… it had been so pure and honest.

_Honesty… heh, we could use more of that in these lands._

" _Serve in the Khan's palace_ they said; _three meals a day_ they said!" the servant muttered under his breath, but apparently not quietly enough to be unheard.

"What's that?" the feline asked from behind him with an innately curious innocence.

"Ah, nothing... just talking to myself."

The cat's unusual expression denoted just how awkwardly that statement had sounded, but the jackal just kept walking onward, so she shrugged and followed obediently.

The two made their way out of the palace, walking along a winding dirt path that ran uphill and parallel to the small lake that sat within the innermost walls of Khanbaliq. An impenetrable silence prevailed as they passed no less than six separate groups of snow leopard soldiers, the jackal walking with his arms folded behind him and his determined gaze locked forward. It soon became clear where they were headed: at the highest point in the inner city, there sat the only building that wasn't constructed of wood and compacted earth: an alcazar of weathered stonework that made for an impregnable fortress. There was but a single entrance, protected by a massive double-reinforced gate, and the servant and guest now stood before it.

After a short delay, the piercing sound of interlocked rusty metal was heard as the door started to open. The jackal at last turned around and addressed the martial arts master behind him.

"This is as far as I will go. The Khan will meet you inside shortly." he said, beckoning into the structure with his arm.

Taking one last look at the servant, Mei Ling complied, entering alone to find a small inner courtyard. She saw the building where she was evidently supposed to converse with the ruler, but what really caught her attention was the two guards posted outside of it – they were tigers. They wore some of the finest steel armor she had ever seen, and were armed with what appeared to be double-ended glaives, which they held upright in front of themselves. The thick white jawline fur that deepened their faces was one of the few features visible; their visages were obscured by intricately detailed steel masks that mimicked the fanged maws that no-doubt lay underneath. The golden cat assumed these to be the most elite of the Mongolian ruler's protectors.

Their eyes exhibited an enticing - yet deadly - beauty, much like the namesake of their amber coloration. Their gaze followed her closely as she entered the building, but the male striped felines made no move to impede her path.

The inside of the fortress was damp and cold, but this fact was beyond Mei Ling's cognizance, as the person within the room was certainly not the one she had expected.

Standing there, facing her down, was _yet another_ tiger. Unlike the guards outside, this one had its face uncovered, wasn't burdened down by heavy armor, and most noticeably, was female. Her ornate green dress, and the unmistakable purple eyes that Mei Ling had seen only once before, made her identity quite clear. The smaller cat dropped to one knee without hesitation, right arm over her chest and head bowed; a salute reserved for royalty.

"My respects, Khatun."

The tiger sighed with an odd smile, evidently overly-humbled.

"You're obviously not from around here. Please, call me Nadya." the Khan's wife said with a hint of an accent Mei Ling couldn't pin down. She offered a paw and helped the kneeling cat up. "And as you can certainly tell, I'm not from here either."

"I am Mei Ling - it's an honor to meet you, my lady... but I'm afraid you're not the one I expected to meet here tonight."

The tiger matron turned her head back to gaze behind her, visibly discomforted by something.

"I came to see for myself what has stolen away my husband's every waking moment... and dare I say, I'm unimpressed." she explained, starting to growl under the volume of her words. "An uncanny madness devours him - night after night, he visits only this place."

Before Mei Ling could inquire into what Nadya had just revealed, the imposing Siberian tiger started for the exit.

"You'll have to excuse me; I'd rather not have my husband knowing I was here... If he asks you, this conversation never happened."

The golden cat nodded in subservience, and the striped feline departed, perhaps with more haste than befitted a Khatun.

Now alone, Mei Ling's thoughts began to wander.

_There seems to be no shortage of strangeness in this town. And there's all these tigers around here… Funny, the only other time I ever saw a tiger was… Crane's last day at Lee Da._

The golden cat frowned at the memory. Ever since that chance encounter had separated them, it seemed fate itself had done just about everything to keep them apart, even when they had been together for the briefest time. Before these thoughts overcame her entirely, an oddly metallic humming noise dragged her mind back to the present. The sound seemed to be coming from a nearby antechamber, and the cat followed her ears to the source eagerly. She investigated the room, which was well lit by many torch sconces on the walls, and found that there was only one place the sound could be coming from. On a raised stone platform in the center of the stone chamber, a sinuous metallic object was gradually vibrating itself in a tight elliptical orbit upon the flat surface.

The sound… it was practically music; strange, hypnotic music. The more she looked at it, the more she was entranced by the curious nature of the thing. The cat slowly and cautiously started to approach it, her vision narrowing to a tunnel around this single, perplexingly animate object. Closer examination as it continued to slowly rotate revealed that it was actually a short-bladed weapon of some sort.

She could feel an energy draw from within the blade – massively powerful, but unlike anything she had ever sensed in her extensive Chi meditations; like the force of an ocean held within a single drop of water. Without even knowing it, her paw was starting to reach for it. Her claws were about to make contact with the pulsating metal, but a voice behind her prompted the golden cat to draw her reaching arm back at once.

"Simply _unnerving_ , isn't it?"

She spun around quickly to face the owner of the unmistakably husky voice and bowed at once.

"Apologies, my lord."

"Nonsense, I can't blame you for sharing my own curiosity." the Khan assured, moving into the room.

The tall leopard circled around to face her from the opposing side of the platform; he swatted downward at the blade, his hefty paw pinning it to the stone surface and leaving the room in silence. Mei Ling soon found the ruler's focus had shifted from the strange object to herself.

"It's been a long time, young one. Kingdom of Goryeo - my father's second invasion, was it? What a disaster that one was… You only came up to my knees then; I'd say you're nearly your father's height now."

The golden cat looked away, nearly buckling under the sudden rush of unwelcome old memories. "Much has changed since then…"

"Yes, I'm sure it has, _Mei Ling_ – is that what you're going by now?"

The female cat cringed as he had said this.

"With respect, I'd rather not discuss this, my lord."

The Khan looked slightly disappointed, but quickly concurred. "So be it, I suppose we aren't here to discuss 'old times' anyway."

"What do you require of me?"

"I hear you are quite the warrior, seeing as how my daughter finally met her equal the other day."

The golden cat looked a little surprised. "You know about that?"

"This is my town - I know everything that happens here." he answered matter-of-factly. "But the task I am asking of you does not rely on your skills in combat, rather those that are of a more… _supernatural_ persuasion."

"What do you mean?"

The leopard smiled, releasing the blade from his paw. "You've felt it, haven't you? Such incredible power, such potential. And yet, it remains hindered, restrained - begging to be set free."

True, Mei Ling had indeed felt the power of the blade; but that didn't change the fact that most of what the Khan had just said sounded like utter gibberish to her.

"It's been rumored that you Kung Fu masters can perform a certain type of witchcraft that could be of use to me."

_He can't seriously be referring to Chi, can he?_

"I suspect this object pertains to the same magical forces, and therefore you should be able to release it. This is my task for you - do it, and you'll be free of your servitude to me. Whatever you desire, it will be yours."

The martial artist tried her best to remain in a composed, respectful state, but it was difficult. She'd seen plenty of otherworldly things, and at the end of the day this little piece of metal didn't look like anything too special.

_It moves by itself - so what? Compared to the Sacred War Hammer of Lei Lang, this is a mere trinket._

After collecting herself, she began to explain the apparent errors in the Khan's reasoning.

"You may not be aware, but Chi doesn't-"

"At least give it a try." the leopard interjected, unwilling to be denied the opportunity to vindicate himself in the eyes of most of his court advisers. With each passing day, he looked more like a fool.

The cat shrugged, and seeing no counter to this offer, approached the stone platform. She lowered her form into a relaxed Tai Chi stance, closed her eyes, and began to outstretch her paws to interface with the object, reading the natural flow of the universe. Besides the minor annoyance of the rattling metallic noise, the chamber became eerily quiet once more. The localized darkness in the center of the torch-lit area was soon overcome by the golden light now glowing from the cat's paws. After several minutes like this, the Khan could no longer hold his curiosity in.

"Well, what is it? What do you see?"

After waiting several moments for an answer, the Khan prepared to ask again, for fear that she had somehow not heard him; but at last, her eyes still closed, the golden cat responded in a low whispered tone.

" _A wall_. I see a wall."

"A wall? What lies behind it?"

"I can't be certain. I can only see one thing beyond - it's a color..."

"It's red, isn't it?" the Khan said softly, recalling his visions from before.

Despite her surprise, Mei Ling's eyes remained stubbornly closed. She only nodded to confirm the leopard's suspicion.

The Khan grew desperate. "This wall - can you break through it?"

In response, the facial features of the meditating cat shifted; her brow started to slowly furrow, and she was observably less relaxed than before. The intensity of the yellow radiance from her paws began to flicker, casting odd shadows about the room. It was evident that all of her focus and energy was being consolidated toward this single nexus beyond her outstretched arms.

The whole display looked ludicrous to its sole observer; the cat was now grunting in exertion, but she carried no heavy load on her back. Then at last, there was the faintest hint of a breakthrough: the blade stopped vibrating, and gently began to levitate above the platform.

_This is it - has to be. The power of the weapon will be mine at last!_

But just as the ruler's new faith had blossomed, it was immediately struck down. The deep yellow of Mei Ling's paws violently darkened to a nefariously crimson red, and the cat was thrown backwards by forces unseen. When she hit the far wall of the antechamber, her eyes at last opened wide, and the awestruck leopard thought he could see small streaks of red receding from the corners of her chrome orbs. The Khan rushed over to the fallen cat, and began to demand an explanation from her, long before she was prepared to give one.

"What the hell was that? What happened?"

"C-can't..." Mei Ling did her best to stutter out in response.

"Can't - what do you mean _you_ _can't_? You're supposed to be a _master_ of this mystical nonsense!" the leopard yelled, showing teeth.

Taking a moment to finally recover from shock, she worked herself back up to her knees.

"You don't understand - whatever is blocking it... it's an energy unlike anything I've seen before. I don't know if there's a person _living_ who possesses the Chi required to break through such a barrier." Feeling lightheaded, she shook herself a little before continuing. "And even _if_ I could get through, I'm not sure that whatever lies inside is meant to be released..."

Upon hearing this, the Khan backed away, simmering with anger.

_'It's not meant to be released' - she thinks I am too weak to wield it!_

"No - not _this_ again; I am sick of everyone doubting my resolve!" he raged, overturning the stone platform with intimidating ease.

The golden cat was clueless as to what he was ranting about, and could tell that the leopard's anger had roots that went deeper than she could see. After muttering expletives and pacing across the room, the Khan turned back to her.

"Listen here, girl - you exist only by _my_ mercy! Don't think for a moment that your debt will be paid until this object's power - one way or another - becomes mine! I don't care if it takes you a year; you _will_ do it!"

The spotted feline then stormed out of the area in a huff, leaving the smaller cat alone. From where the leopard had displaced the platform in his outburst, and the Dagger of Deng-Wa now lay on the cold floor, vibrating once again. The golden cat just stared at the thing. To be free of her servitude, to retain her honor, she must find a way to release - to activate - this unnatural object.

_But is it worth the potential consequences? How much is my honor - my father's honor - really worth?_

A sudden gust of wind blew through the open passageway that led to the cool night air outside; she could hear the distant tussle of banners and flags as the forceful draft beat against them. But under all the noise, she swore she could hear a voice... subtle, but there, nonetheless. Originating from the ancient weapon on the floor, it called out to her in a muffled whisper:

_The seeds have already been planted; the Winds are Changing._


	15. Kökejin

Despite being unable to see more than a few feet in front of himself, Crane caught the curved saber that was thrust at him; wrapping his talons around the handle and flapping with his good wing, he twisted it from his opponent's grip and it fell into his other waiting appendage. Catching it, he immediately slashed horizontally at the partially-obscured corsac fox opposite him, and heard a pained yelp as he fell out of view.

In the midst of the sandstorm that had blown in from the desert they had left behind, the three masters had quickly lost track of each other. To make matters worse, they had been ambushed yet again. Their current enemies seemed to be much more acquainted with the current weather, and were using the low visibility to their advantage. It was hard to tell if they were bandits, rebels, or just the local inhabitants of this hostile land; the only thing that was certain was they wanted the masters dead.

Not too far from Crane was Po, who had just bested a Saiga antelope and another fox by grabbing their heads and smashing them together.

"Yeah! I can do this all day!" the panda exclaimed, raising both fists to the sky in what turned out to be premature celebration. Springing out from the wall of airborne sand around him, an osprey descended on Po and wrapped its talons around his arms. As the panda fought to free himself, the raptor began an aggressive vertical ascent, pulling the bear's weight upward with ease. As he watched the ground disappear into the storm below, Po quickly devised a plan to free himself. Pulling hard with his entangled arms, the osprey's head was jerked downward - just low enough to be within striking distance. The Dragon Warrior kicked upward, planting his shin right under the avian's beak. A moment later, his feathered assailant stopped flapping its wings, and the talons began to loosen their grip.

"Ha! Take that, you stupid- oh wait..."

Po fell out of the bird's hold and plummeted back to the ground; by sheer luck, he happened to land on an unfortunate desert bear that had been dueling with Tigress. The smaller bear let out a pained groan as he was utterly crushed under the force of a panda falling at near-terminal velocity. Tigress just shrugged off the odd development and moved on to her next opponent, or more accurately, her next victim.

"You're welcome..." Po sighed, also not feeling too great; it hadn't been like he'd landed on a pillow, after all.

As he struggled to stand back up, Crane came into view just as Tigress had left. Grasping a stray spear with his foot, the bird was balancing himself on only one leg; he didn't even take notice of Po, as he almost immediately interlocked his weapon with that of a determined steppe badger. The panda soon discovered he had his own problems, too, when the sandstorm spat forth a charging yak that was coming at him on all fours. Doing his best not to panic, Po waited until the last second to duck right as the bovine jumped at him; the devastating strike landed not on the panda, but on the ill-fated bear behind him, who had just begun to get up from being crushed the first time.

Crane had since managed to force both blade-ends of the interlocked spears towards the dirt below, and his face was now unusually close to the badger's. Giving an awkward, uncomfortable chuckle, the avian proceeded to reverse his entire body using the weapon as a pivot, knocking the badger down from behind. The mammal jumped up much quicker than he expected, however, and sliced off a few of Crane's contour feathers with a small blade. Falling backwards, the bird instinctively reacted by kicking the weapon away from the badger's grasp. The deflective expert also came up from the ground quickly, but was relieved to discover he'd received a much-needed assist from the Dragon Warrior. Po had engaged the badger in unarmed combat, where the superior training of the panda quickly prevailed.

Using his well-tempered bear style, Po timed his strikes well and used his opponent's against him. Finishing with a roundhouse kick, the now-senseless badger was knocked back to form a neat pile with the other incapacitated attackers. As if right on cue, the bird and panda heard a distant scream that grew progressively louder, and a steppe wolf came barreling through the air and landed nearby. The storm soon revealed the source of his defeat, as Tigress slowly came into view, the strong winds blowing against her recently acquired dark clothing. A few rays of sunlight penetrated the hostile weather environment as the storm weakened, highlighting the unusual golden symbol on the midnight-blue robes.

As the air became clear once more, Crane was the first to speak up.

"Po, we can't keep going on like this; well-trained as we are, we just can't."

"Hey, is it _my_ fault that everyone we meet wants to kill us?" The panda shook some of the sand out of his fur.

"Crane has a point - we can't expect to just walk into Khanbaliq." Tigress said, finishing off the wolf she had thrown earlier with a punch to the face.

Po was surprised to see that Tigress was now looking to him for a plan - for _leadership_. This was unexpected, as she had been making all the decisions so far. Even though he outranked her, Po always understood that it was in her nature to lead, as it was what she was raised to do; besides, he was perfectly content to let the tiger take point - he'd long since learned that leadership is _hard_. But now, she seemed willing to cede him that great responsibility, unprepared as he was in the moment.

"Well, see... about that..."

Crane was now also giving Po the same look.

"We _could_ make a plan, but we have to actually _get there_ first, right?" the panda said, making it painfully obvious he had no idea how they were going to complete the mission.

"So be it." the tiger-style master deadpanned, pausing before once more heading in the direction of the Mongol capital.

* * *

Mei Ling watched as an anomaly danced on the distant horizon. From the high ramparts of the Khanbaliq citadel, she watched as the daylight reflected unusually on what appeared to be a tan cloud. Although, it didn't appear to be a cloud, as it had erratically moved left and right over time, but always stayed close to the ground.

Having spent all night futilely attempting the unusual task given to her by the Khan, the cat had long since given up. She'd passed the time watching the sun on its gradual daytime journey across the sky from her improvised perch on one of the fortress' parapets, all the while lost in thought; it hadn't yet occurred to her that she'd been up for almost a whole day. Now that the sun was getting close to setting, she had shifted her attention to this odd little speck on the horizon; someone had just joined her on the narrow terrace, but she didn't bother turning to face them, for she knew _exactly_ who it was.

"It's a sandstorm - they blow in from the desert from time to time... not very fun to fight in."

"Hello, father."

Gan nearly winced from the animus in her tone. "I see you received my message."

"I'm here, aren't I?" the golden cat answered, as her father gave a conceding exhale.

"I came to tell you that I'll be leaving Khanbaliq for a few days; Zhenjin has asked me to join him on a scouting mission - his sister's probably gotten under his fur again."

Mei Ling got up, so that both cats now stood precariously close to the edge of the terrace. From a distance, such a feat would seem death-defying, but their feline balance made this display rather effortless.

"What ever happened to 'we're not on speaking terms'..." she prodded.

_Damn, she definitely has her mother's hearing. I should have known..._

"Heh, I wasn't aware you heard all that... apologies about Yuelun, she doesn't trust easily."

The mention of the snow leopardess' name bothered the golden cat deeply; it had sounded like the way a parent would speak of his daughter.

_How fondly that cat spoke of him - almost as if he's learned to be a father somewhere along the way. Figures._

The subtle flicking of the female cat's large ears betrayed her inner frustrations.

"What is it?"

"When the Khan releases me from his service, I won't stay here."

The leopard began to look down and scratch at the fur of his inner forearm, as if there was something interesting to look at there. "This is your home, is it not?"

"This hasn't been my home for twenty years - there's nothing for me here." She paused, waiting patiently for Gan to look her in the eyes. "I know you don't love me, father. You never have."

"Kökejin-"

"Do not call me by that name. That naive little girl died with her mother."

The snow leopard stepped back a little, deeply hurt by her words. He waited a long time before speaking, just looking at his golden cat daughter.

"I... I wasn't much older than you when I killed my father. It's what Mongolia can do to people... I tried to spare you from this life, to keep you from becoming me."

Mei Ling turned away in disgust. "Don't force me to stomach your lies. What you did was never about 'protecting' me. I realized long ago that you and the Khan just wanted me to become another one of your weapons."

"Then why did you come - why have you stayed?" Gan muttered, even more wounded than before.

"Because fortunately for you, there was nothing left for me in China, either."

The leopard lowered his head in surrender, and the golden cat leapt from the edge; gracefully diving toward the lower city below, she landed undaunted on a rooftop after several flips.

* * *

The first breath of morning air that Crane took in after waking up was near-freezing. As his neck started to emerge from under his wing, he found his entire body to be stiff and sore; now he wished he'd just stayed asleep. He jabbed his wings out from his sides a few times to try and warm up, but this only succeeded in making him colder. There was a hint of light on the horizon, but morning was still a ways off. Po was obviously still deep in sleep, as his snoring was shaking the ground all around the avian, causing the joints of his thin legs to stiffen. As he took in his bearings, he also picked out Tigress, who was perched atop a nearby rock.

The feline wasn't in any meditative or Tai Chi position, but in a relaxed reclined posture instead. She was holding a single paw out in front of her face, slowly watching as the rising sun crept its way into the minuscule gaps between her digits and claws. Something about seeing her in this unusually mellow capacity emboldened the bird to speak to her.

"It's not like you to not be meditating at this hour…"

"It's not like you to have the courage to speak to me alone – guess we're both out of practice." The feline sheathed her claws and began to get up from where she was sitting, expecting that to be the extent of their 'talk.'

Crane watched as her gaze shifted to something behind them.

_She's looking at Po's wound, has to be. Guess now's as good a time as any._

"There's something I wanted to know, if you don't mind."

Tigress just stood still, her lack of a response seeming to give him permission to continue.

"I assume you told Po the truth about the wound?"

Tigress seized up in the middle of taking a breath, and her lip furrowed over in a way unlike anything Crane had seen on her features before; it caused her whiskers to point at a depressive downward angle as her eyes shifted away from the avian master, and off to the darkened horizon opposite the rising sun.

"How did you know about that?" she asked weakly. "I thought… I thought-"

"Come on, Tigress. After all the years we've trained together, do you really think I wouldn't recognize those claw marks anywhere?"

"Then why did you lie about it to Po?" she spat out, stumbling over her words.

"I wanted you to tell him when you were ready. And like I said," the bird asserted, "I assumed you told him the other day after the fight."

The last icy breeze of night came over the steppe – a final assault before surrendering to the coming warmth of daylight; it unsettled their collective feathers and fur. The feline's eyes had still not returned to Crane's.

"Yes, I… I did tell him."

Crane nodded a little at this admission. "How did he take it?"

"You know Po... he forgave me instantly, like nothing ever happened. I can't say I would have done the same had our places been switched." She took a deep, slow breath. "I just don't understand how he does it... after everything that's happened to him, how he continues to be that way..."

The defensive master gave a prolonged exhale as he paused to look down at the talons of his feet. "You know, I think in times like this, it's important to remember the reason Po is the Dragon Warrior - it never had much to do with Kung Fu. We all learned that, in time."

Tigress sighed. "You're not wrong... but I understood such things far too late."

Crane tilted his head to the side with determined inquisitiveness. "And does that… _bother_ you? Does it bother you that rage could cloud your judgement?" His aggressive questioning had once more caught her entirely by surprise, but the avian wasn't letting up. "Does it bother you that Po has the title - not because his Kung Fu is superior - but because he is at peace with himself?"

_I never knew Crane could cut this deep... I used to know the answers to these questions; now, I don't know anything for sure._

The avian could see the feline's chest starting to rise and fall at a faster rate than before, and her ears flattened to her head solemnly. A moment earlier, he'd been ready to receive an angry punch from the tiger for his prying, but instead she just stood there, at a complete loss for words. He'd seen this side of Tigress only once before, and that was back when she'd thought Po was dead because of her own failure; and it was then that Crane recognized this spectacle for what it was... it was an emotion. It was guilt. For the briefest passing moment, the bird swore that he could see the beginnings of tears start to well up in a pair of bottomless yellow and amber eyes.

The rustling sound of Po awakening behind the two prompted the tiger to jolt her head to the side and preserve her dignity. Recovering quickly, she looked as normal as possible before the panda was fully awake.

"Morning guys, what's up?" he asked in oblivious eagerness.

"Nothing." the bird and feline answered in perfect sync.


	16. Collision Course

The depth of the night was thoroughly evidenced by the fading light of torches, their dwindling shafts releasing drops of liquid flame to the ground. A weary patrol slowly worked its way along the edges of the Khanbaliq hinterlands; near the front of the column of lamellar-and-scalemail bedecked soldiers, the Khan's son and his sworn protector walked side by side.

"You know the first thing I'll do when I become Khan?" Zhenjin questioned rhetorically. "I'm going to centralize the armies, and avoid all of the useless clan politics."

"A noble goal for sure, kid." Gan quickly answered, moving his torch further from his face. The tiger next to him couldn't help but notice his lack of enthusiasm.

"What - you think I won't be successful?"

The leopard took a moment before answering, making sure his next words were adequately phrased. "Your father and I have fought in many wars; some thrust upon us, some of our own making... but we've always accepted the futility of the one going on in our own lands. The Khan has been wise to appease the clans thus far - some of them supported his brothers in the realm divide, and are liable to turn on him otherwise."

"Pfft. A lot of good it's done us lately." the tiger mused. "The armies should've been here weeks ago."

His torch having just met its demise, Gan let the now-useless twig fall to the ground; he habitually kept readjusting his twin shortsabers in their respective scabbards.

"Please forgive my skepticism, Jinong, but I don't expect to see the clan chiefs relinquishing their power anytime soon."

The tiger's features contorted, and he gripped the spear he was holding a little tighter.

"It'll be hard for them to _relinquish_ anything when they're dead."

This was the kind of brashness that Gan had come to expect from the young Khan-to-be; it often made him fear for the future of the realm.

"Tough words, but you'll find backing them up with force to be harder than you think. As soon as you kill one, the rest will turn on you; and the last thing this country needs is another civil war."

Zhenjin grunted discontentedly, but offered no retort as they continued onward. A few moments later, the leopard saw his striped counterpart stop suddenly, and raised a paw signaling the soldiers to halt.

"What is it?" Gan asked in a lower tone than usual, his eyes darting around the surrounding area in search of threats. Seeing nothing in the darkened grassland, the veteran warrior listened closely for distant commotion; he heard nothing - only the wind. When Zhenjin finally answered, it was with a question of his own.

"Do you smell that?"

The spotted feline sniffed at the air, and his gaze returned to the tiger next to him. "No, I've got nothing; but your nose is better - and younger - than mine."

He couldn't hope to accurately describe the smell, but Zhenjin's instincts told him it was a particularly corrupted redolence, and it put him on edge. Nonetheless, the revolting scent faded as swiftly as it had arrived, the winds having shifted directions again.

The tiger shook his head. "It's gone now... probably nothing."

* * *

"Fire's getting low again." Crane commented, despite this fact being obvious to the three masters huddled around the dwindling flames.

Without a word, Tigress got up and headed away from the makeshift camp they'd thrown together, presumably to begin the daunting task of finding something flammable in their current wood-less surroundings. Po just kept munching on some chickweed he'd collected, attempting to fight the hopeless war of attrition with his stomach. As the tiger passed beyond the view of the masters and into the night, the bird and panda just looked at each other; Po had finally stopped chewing at the plants when he'd noticed Crane staring at him from across the fire. Not wanting the moment to become any more awkward, the bear-style master quickly scoured his mind for a subject for small talk, which - unlike stealth - actually _was_ one of his stronger "modes."

"I wonder how long we've been gone..."

"Maybe a month and a half. Lost track of time a while ago, to be honest." Crane halfheartedly answered. "What is it? Are you getting 'homesick' or something?"

"I don't know..." the panda started, rubbing at the back of his neck. "I do really miss the little things, like cooking with my dad... _dads_ , actually. What about you?"

"The only thing I miss right now, is my hat."

The bird jabbed at the ever-weakening fire with a stick, and silence once more overtook the two masters.

Po then recalled a question he'd meant to ask Crane for a long time. The panda had always understood that the Furious Five had actual names, but for reasons of privacy and prestige alike, had taken on monikers appropriate to their fighting styles; regular Chinese names were usually lacking in brevity, anyways. The fact that all Kung Fu masters were known by titles, and not names, only added to their legendary reputation. Even though the respectful courtesy was to not ask, the Dragon Warrior had asked Monkey, Mantis, Viper, and _especially_ Tigress for their real names hundreds of times.

Viper had been the first to give in, as she was simply too kindhearted to see Po disappointed. Furthermore, she was the daughter of well-known nobility from the Viper Clan, and her name probably wasn't that big of a secret anyway. Next had been Monkey, who had bet this information on a dare. While the panda ended up bed-ridden for two weeks as a result of completing the challenge, he'd always believed it had been worth it. Mantis had shrugged aside his requests many times, until one day - out of the blue - he gave in with little to no resistance. In retrospect, Po wondered if the insect had simply given him some random name just to stop the Dragon Warrior from nagging him about it. Tigress had still refused to entrust him any semblance of an answer, even after all this time. Initially, she would give an angry glare or a growl; but as the months went on, his question would only illicit a frown and long bouts of silence from the feline. He'd even stopped asking her as much, as he hated to see her like that.

But Crane... Po had never asked the avian for his true name. The bird was a very quiet, private individual, who usually went to his room after training and all meals. In short, instances where it was just the two of them together were few and far between. In most of those cases, Po was either distracted by something - usually one of the avian's many art forms - or more focused on the current mission. But in this moment, when they were both exhausted and run-down, the panda had a hunch that the conditions might be suitable to pose such a question.

"So Crane, do you, ya know... have a _real_ name?"

The question did not immediately cause the avian to answer; he was trying to process why Po had just asked such an odd, highly-personal question at a time like this.

"Of course I have a real name." the bird said bluntly, despite knowing this wasn't what the panda was really getting at.

"Well yeah... duh." Po agreed, tamping down some of his chest fur to better cover his wound. "But I was actually wondering what name, specifically."

"I see..." Crane shifted his stance a little, but at last made up his mind to give the panda what he wanted.

"My parents called me Lu Xian, but I've been known as Crane since before the formation of the Furious Five."

The panda grinned giddily.

"I don't know why you'd want to do that - it's such a cool name!" Po assured, before proceeding to sound out the traditional Chinese name in increasingly unusual tones and accents.

Trying to suppress the urge to roll his eyes, Crane was about to explain that he'd always disliked his name; but hearing someone else say it aloud for the first time in over five years gave him pause. He was reminded of the one person who'd made his name sound beautiful and real... as if it actually meant something.

"Po, have you heard of Master Mei Ling?"

Naturally, the Dragon Warrior's encyclopedic knowledge of all things Kung Fu quickly made Crane's question seem redundant.

"Of course! She was the greatest student at the Lee Da Academy back in the day... but she hasn't been seen or heard from in years."

"Indeed, she hasn't - but she really was something back then... strong, quick-witted, honest, kind."

Even as oblivious as Po could be sometimes, he could clearly see a change in the bird's bearing; his eyes held a certain vim that the panda had grown accustomed to not seeing there.

"Were you two _close_ or something?"

Crane sighed, stirring his recollection. "Mei was more the quiet type, but I got to see a side of her that nobody else did. I was such a nobody then; but _she_ always believed I could be more. At first, I thought it was all out of pity - but that wasn't the case."

"So what was it then?" Po asked with a knowing smile.

The bird's nervous side, which had remarkably been absent up to this point, returned in full force when Po had asked this.

"I- I'd rather not speak of this." the bird mumbled, turning away slightly. Po honored his request but refused to let the conversation die, and unwittingly steered the topic in an even _more_ serious direction.

"So... what'cha think of Tigress lately?"

"What about her?" Crane quipped, detached.

Po frowned heavily at the avian, as if to say ' _come on_.' "You've seen her - aren't you worried?"

"Sure I am," he conceded. "but I've also accepted the fact that there's nothing I can do to help her - not that she would let me if I tried."

Po grew silent under the weight of the bird's pessimism. Indeed, it was quiet _just_ long enough to lull Crane into believing the conversation was at last over.

"You wouldn't happen to know _Tigress'_ real name, would you?"

Crane's beak was half-open, about to issue another one of his rapid answers, but what happened next kept it locked in that position; a bundle of kindling had flown out from the surrounding darkness and breathed new life into the flames of the fire - the rising conflagration reflecting brightly on two golden eyes.

"I don't have a real name; I don't _need_ a real name."

* * *

The crunching metal sound of the armored soldiers around Zhenjin, a crude lullaby of sorts, had almost put the tiger to sleep several times throughout the night. But now, he knew it wouldn't be long until dawn - he could smell it. The waist-high steppe grasses, soaked in the morning dew, gave off a certain attar at the first hint of the coming day.

This familiar natural perfume wasn't the only thing his acute snout detected - the smell from the previous night had returned. Even stronger than before, he recognized it this time. It was an essence of putrefaction, rot, and death; unfortunately, he'd grown accustomed to such smells from the time he was a young cub. Still disconcerted about holding up their patrol in the night over nothing, Zhenjin was hesitant to report his finding to Gan, who was a little ways in front of him and looking steadfast as usual. The patrol was almost through the open grasses, headed for the relative safety of the elevated dirt road that led back to Khanbaliq.

They couldn't get there fast enough; the soft, formless mud beneath the tiger's paws seemed to make each passing moment linger ever longer. The leopards around the striped feline didn't seem the least bit concerned, and yet, he could feel something watching them - rapidly closing in.

The first rays of sunlight had arrived.

After reaching down with both arms to free one of his legs from the mud, Zhenjin heard a faint whizzing sound, and looked up to notice that the soldier in front of him had stopped moving forward. Coming up from behind, he'd only gotten halfway to the leopard before the soldier hit the ground with a weighty thud... his eyes were stuck open, and a crudely-constructed arrow protruded out from his chest. It took only a split second for the tiger to process what was happening.

"Ambush!"

Further ahead, Gan turned around in time to see their party's number instantly reduced by a third as more arrows came streaking out from the grasses on all sides. Not one to crack under pressure, he instinctively began barking orders.

"Close ranks and protect the Khan's son! Archers - return fire!"

The hardened leader's words seemed to restore morale to his shocked troops at once, and they did as commanded; after firing blindly into the thick overgrowth, the oncoming arrows diminished in number, and the impromptu battlefield grew eerily quiet. The sun continued to rise, bringing the unwelcome daytime humidity with it. The Mongolian archers eagerly searched for any sign of movement, refusing to relax the tension on their drawn bowstrings; Zhenjin watched closely as Gan removed one of the deformed arrows from the nearest corpse.

"What is it - assassins?" one of the soldiers nearly yelped.

The veteran tersely inspected the projectile before tossing it aside and drawing his twin sabers.

" _Worse._ "

Low growls started to emanate from the grass like dull, vibronic thunder; the air itself seemed to strain as a brief glimpse of black fur became visible through the overgrowth. Panicking, the nearest Mongol loosed his arrow, and it struck true - a spark that unleashed a ravenous flame of combat, hungry for death.

A multitude of ferals cut out through the weeds, some of which were immediately impaled in midair by arrows; others began entangling themselves with the soldiers, finding the gaps in their armor with small, unrefined weapons. Two of them came right at Gan, but the grizzled maven made a pair of quick slashes, and both were dead before they hit the ground. The other leopards promptly tried to shield the tiger among them, but soon became preoccupied with their individual marks. These people - these _things_ \- attacking them had horribly overgrown fur, and mephitic drool slipped from their maws. When striking, they weren't hesitating to use their claws in close combat; the mud below soon mixed with the hot, thick red of feline blood.

Using his blades with maximal efficiency, Gan was parrying with one saber, and immediately following with a death-blow from the other; determinedly cleaving through the mange-covered assailants, leaving a trail of severed limbs and entrails in his wake. The ferals were fighting sloppily, and the leopard exploited this by using one as a meat shield on several occasions. After reversing both sabers in his paws and jabbing them into the chest of what used to be a wolf, one of the savages got lucky by planting a shiv in his shoulder; he responded by turning and puncturing one of his blades under its chin and cracking through the top of the skull - but the damage had been done. The wound weakened him significantly, and virtually denied him the use of one of his limbs. Not wanting to carry two weapons anymore, he chucked his spare blade into the head of a charging lynx, effectively lobotomizing it.

Somehow still untouched, Zhenjin looked around frantically, trying to spot Gan in the frenzied close-quarters melee. The soldiers were fighting well, but still steadily falling to the superior numbers of the ferals; some of the attackers had opted to smother the leopards in the thick mud, using their weighty armor against them. There were now too few Mongols left to protect their prince, and the tiger reluctantly entered the fight. A blood-spattered feline with overgrown claws lunged upwards at him, and he blocked its arms by placing his spear horizontally as he'd been taught; his training didn't prepare him for when the deranged cat snapped its jaws down on the shaft of the weapon, splitting it in two. Improvising, he grabbed the falling blade tip and jabbed that half of the weapon into the feral's weak-point at the underarm; it ended up penetrating clear through to the spine, paralyzing the fiend.

There were now only around ten of the Mongols left; the survivors were forming a circle. Gan backed towards his remaining allies, outstretching the blade in his only good limb to ward off the advances of the crazed attackers. His spear long gone, Zhenjin drew his saber, a gold-inlaid ceremonial weapon that wasn't crafted for killing, and readied it to do just that. The more-numerous aggressors started to circle them, trying to pick off an easy kill or find a weak point. Seeing them move slowly for the first time, the tiger could see their eyes at last - such desperation they held, widened by an intense longing for some unknown ravin.

There was only a few passing seconds where the tiger could shout a question to his protector, and have a chance of being heard. He had many questions, but there was only one at the very forefront of his consciousness.

"Gan - what do they want from us?!"

The mindless brutes continued to circle. The answer to his question came at last, in between labored breaths.

"Our flesh."

This realization was punctuated by the sight of several corpses being drug away by the most desperate of the beasts. The stalemate was shattered when a canine made the fatal mistake of thinking the wounded Gan was the weak-point and leaping at him; the old leopard was tired, nonchalantly lowering to one knee and holding his blade vertically - gutting his enemy lengthwise.

Seizing on the instability of the moment, the rest of the ferals rushed in. Without hesitation, Zhenjin plunged his blade into the gut of the first wolf to reach him - the beast didn't even seem to notice as it spread its jaws wide, impulsively trying to bite his head off. As he grabbed each side of its maw, the fangs within began to tear into the tiger's paw pads. Letting out a scream of pain, he jerked with immense torsive force; there was a loud crack and the lupine collapsed to the ground, the ornate saber still lodged in its gut. Zhenjin realized he was now unarmed a little too late, as what appeared to be a manic female leopard pounced on him and brought them both down to the mud. Both of his arms pinned down, he tried to face his death with courage by roaring defiantly.

His call was unexpectedly answered - by an almost identical vocalization.

Right before the berserk leopard dealt the killing blow, something seemed to strike her from behind, and her form fell limp on top of her quarry. Exhausted, and not having the strength to push off the weight, Zhenjin passed out.

A flash of orange split its way between the ferals, dropping them like wheat before the scythe. Leaping high into the air and bringing her weight down on two nearby attackers, Gan was shocked to see a female tiger - a _Chinese_ tiger - taking out his enemies. The lithe feline joined the Mongol survivors, and they seemed content to keep fighting without asking questions. The scene became even more surreal as a bird - which wasn't flying - and a large monochrome bear of some kind leapt among the ferals with their apparent striped ally. Like the feline, they were unbelievable fighters, and any opponent to approach them quickly hit the ground; all the while, they seemed to be using non-lethal means. Gan just watched breathlessly, blood running down the side of his face from a nicked ear, as the last of his ruthless enemies fell.

The panda was initially smiling after their timely victory, but soon took in the carnage around him, and emptied his stomach onto the ground. The bird also looked somewhat green, but the tiger just stood still, glacially sizing-up the mud-covered Mongols. As the newcomers - and obvious Chinese foreigners - adjusted to their surroundings, Zhenjin was helped from under a heap of several bodies and edged up behind to watch the silent standoff taking place.

The leopard and panda were close to each other now, and after such a rough battle, were perhaps even considering shaking paws... but old habits die hard, and a millennia of conflict between cultures is seldom forgotten. With a flick of one digit from their leader, the remaining leopards drew their weapons; the tiger and bird answered in kind by lowering their stances. However, the panda did not move. The bear stepped forth, raising his arms in a reassuring way, and Gan could see a large wound across his chest that he'd tried to hide with his fur.

_Perhaps this is not their first encounter with the flesh-eaters..._

"Po - what are you doing?" the striped one said through clenched teeth.

The panda began to speak without answering his ally. "I have a proposal."

A single jolt of amusement, a hint of a laugh, passed over the leopard; he was entirely committed to the notion of fighting the foreigners to the death. He was a killer, not a negotiator, and "proposals" did not interest him. The leopard knew his death would be likely in such a fight - but he no longer had many reasons to live, anyway. As he was about to raise a paw to give the order to engage, the prince behind him intervened.

"Wait - I wish to hear the large one's offer."

Po frowned at this other tiger's bluntness, but proceeded anyway. "We will come with you without a fight... _if_ you promise to take us to see the Khan."

"What kind of deal is that? Why shouldn't I just have you killed now?"

Po breathed in deeply, and looked to his companions on either side of himself. "Trust me." he whispered, lowering their outstretched limbs with his paws.

"Because we just defeated a force that had the better of you - do you really think you can afford any more casualties?" the panda wisely observed. The Mongols began to look to each other and their fallen comrades with unease.

Gan seemed to grow angry, raising his paw once more; but the way the striped feline paused, showed he was seriously considering the offer now.

Everyone continued the standoff for several more uncomfortable moments. Wincing from the dagger still in his shoulder, Gan leaned in closer to the tiger's ear. "I advise against this."

"It's settled then." Zhenjin started, forcefully yanking out the flesh-embedded blade, at which the leopard couldn't repress a pained grunt. "We'll take you to the Khan - but I make no guarantees of your safety once we reach Khanbaliq."

Po nodded, not breaking eye contact with the Mongol prince. As the leopards began to withdraw and lower their weapons, Crane came up next to the panda to stay out of their earshot.

"I hope you know what you're doing."


	17. Introductions, Reunions

Perpetually under scrutiny from watchful Mongolian eyes, the three martial artists witnessed the tall grasslands around them become low-lying green hills; the peaks of which were sharp enough to grace mountaintops, and yet, they were still dwarfed by any foothills the masters had known from their native China. The elevation change was so insignificant that they could still see the desert sands being kicked up from windstorms in the distance behind them. The felines surrounding them were a sight all their own. Due to the chilled breeze that whipped between the rocky terrain, Po and Tigress fiercely envied the fact that these other mammals had significantly thicker fur than themselves; it gave them an exotically rugged complexion, the result of centuries of adaptation to the harsher milieu of the steppe.

While there would be an occasional shove or jab to keep the masters moving, the Mongols hadn't bothered to restrain their "captives," since it was evident that they hadn't possessed the means to do so in the first place. Trying to tie up the panda and the bird would be more of a chore than it was worth, and nothing less than steel chains could hold the tiger - so why bother? The contingent of soldiers, who had recently seen the majority of their number suffer an array of terrible fates, were eager to return to the safety of their capital's walls; as a result, the journey had been progressing quickly.

Along the way, Tigress had grown increasingly observant of the other tiger in the party; she'd never seen another of her own kind before, and he was anything but what she had expected. For one, the male tiger was larger than what her imagination had led her to believe. By the way he acted, he was clearly still young, and yet - she only barely stood above his shoulders, and his frame conveyed that he was capable of hitting with an immense amount of force. Nonetheless, she was confident that she could knock him to the ground in about five seconds. It was the other big cat - the leopard that seemed to be in command - that concerned her. He had something much deadlier than brute force: experience. If this odd, unlikely truce between themselves and the Mongols began to deteriorate in a hurry, she took note to make the cat with the twin blades her first priority in combat.

Zhenjin had since taken notice of the female's lingering eyes - they were unwelcome.

"Do you even know what that symbol means?" he asked, nudging his head toward the lower part of Tigress' garments.

Caught somewhat unprepared, the other tiger still managed to answer quickly. "No. The clothes were a gift from one of your subjects."

"One of _my_ subjects? You speak as if my reputation precedes me."

Tigress shook her head. "It doesn't have to - you are clearly a prince of this realm."

Zhenjin wasn't sure whether to take this as a compliment or an insult, since her tone had surrendered no emotion whatsoever. She was still looking in his direction, head turned to the side; but he did not do the same - preferring to gaze forward somewhat blankly.

"You're not wrong. I am Zhenjin, first issue of the Khan of Khans - I will be the next ruler of Mongolia, the Ilkhanate, _and China_." the Siberian tiger proudly answered, injecting extra aggression into the last part; Tigress restrained herself from growling.

_Like hell you will be._

The young prince grinned in satisfaction, as if he could hear her thoughts.

"I'm Tigress." the smaller striped feline answered, trying to be somewhat polite.

Now the male turned his head too, raising a brow. "Really? That's your _name_?" he asked, beginning to chuckle.

The hostility blossoming in the female's eyes showed him she was serious; but to her dismay, this only made him laugh harder. And for whatever reason, not seeing him back down made the dauntless cat want to retreat deep within herself. Po, who had been closely following this discourse from the start, came to his friend's defense.

"Hey guy - are you gonna explain the symbol or what?" he interjected. Although she refused to show it, Tigress was grateful for the respite Po provided.

As the panda had hoped, Zhenjin abandoned his teasing laughter when recalling what had started the conversation in the first place. Collecting himself, the tiger studied the interwoven golden lattice that hung between Tigress' legs, swaying with each of her austere strides.

"It is the _Ulzii Khee_ \- a symbol of tremendous importance to our people; it represents happiness and unity."

Without warning, the leopard with the twin blades began to speak as well. "The Endless Knot is about being at peace with oneself, the ideal harmony between wisdom and compassion." he added as he walked next to Crane and the other soldiers. "If you truly received that outfit as a gift - and not lied to us like you Chinese often do - then you should be very honored."

Tigress just glared down at the symbol in bewilderment, unsure what to make of these revelations.

_Happiness, compassion, harmony - hardly what I'm feeling these days._

Her tail started to hurt again, stubbornly refusing to heal; the tiger winced as she began to walk with a slight limp.

Having chosen to silently observe all the while, Crane was surprised that the Mongol next to him had just mentioned such philosophical terms; like everyone else in China, he'd grown up believing that the Mongols were nothing but barbarians. They were the mindless boogeymen from the northern lands - surely not a people that could understand such complexities as artistic expression. Inspecting the comparatively colossal leopard to his side, he internally guffawed at the notion of a person like this trying to interpret one of his paintings back at the Jade Palace.

* * *

By mid-afternoon, the pass through the hills began to widen once more into flat terrain. And there, in the distance, the masters could see it for the first time - Khanbaliq. Resting broadly on the level contour of the steppe, the wide sprawl of the city extended outwards for quite a ways. It was the exact opposite of the last large settlement they had seen, and instead of the high, impregnable stone walls of Xiangyang, there were only low-lying battlements of compacted earth; the inevitable trade-off for sustaining a rapidly expanding settlement in this resource-poor region. Columns of smoke rose up from the city, the sole blemishes upon the boundless cerulean sea above.

As the returning patrol drew nearer to their place of origin, the masters began to make out a two-tiered inner city complex, consisting of a large palace built in the Chinese style with a burnished copper-colored facade, and a slightly elevated stonework citadel. These buildings, obviously the most important in town, flanked each other on opposing sides of a central reservoir lake. Flying high over the walls and structures of the settlement were countless indigo colored banners; they bore the unmistakable white insignia of a sphere resting over a crescent - the mark of the Mongolian royal line, which each of the soldiers around them had stamped upon their thick lamellar armor. Seeing the masters unable to mask their amazement at the sight of the Khan's city gave the soldiers a smug, prideful edge.

The pathway beneath them became a steady dirt road, the likes of which had grown unfamiliar to the masters; they began to pass laborers toiling in mostly-barren farm fields, obviously inadequate to support a settlement this size for an extended period of time. Approaching the nearest main gate of Khanbaliq, the guards on duty moved to impede their entry; but after recognizing the two male felines at the head of the patrol, they bowed and backed away quickly, not wanting any trouble from their superiors.

Almost immediately after entering the settlement, people began to notice the foreigners' presence, often stopping to gawk at them for several moments. It was likely that, just as the masters had never - until very recently - seen a Mongol before, these people had never met actual Chinese citizens either. Tigress hated having all of these eyes on them; as far as she was concerned, this was _never_ a good thing. Conversely, Po was reveling in all the attention, offering numerous inelegant hellos that were not returned. It was soon clear that most of the townspeople's bafflement centered around the panda; they had seen tigers and birds all their lives - but never anything that looked remotely like Po.

The street opened into a large square, with the massive palace they had seen earlier on the other side. The square itself would have been more impressive had there not been countless temporary dwellings and campfires set up every few feet; these were not occupied by townsfolk, but by lightly armored soldiers instead. Almost exclusively snow leopards, their massive numbers indicated that perhaps an entire army was being housed within the city. The spears at their backs and the unwelcome glares from the surrounding brutes as the masters were led to the large structure gave them an unmistakable aura of _deja vu_.

"Po, now might be a good time to divulge this plan of yours." Crane said to the panda in a harsh whisper.

"Ah, right." Po began to answer. "We can't do anything until we put eyes on the weapon - so just... _play it cool_ until then, ok?"

"Play it cool? I don't think we have a choice..." the bird said, taking in the sight of hundreds of Mongolian warriors around them.

Eventually they reached the far side of the open area, where Zhenjin led the way up some steps to the palace doors. Most of what was left of the patrol had since diffused into the large gathering of troops, and it was now just the Mongol prince and the leopard with the twin blades accompanying the foreigners. Reaching the top of the steps, which weren't even numerous enough for Po to complain about, the five of them were stopped by the most pathetic looking desert jackal that the masters had ever seen. The meager canine paced up to them and addressed the prince directly.

"What's the meaning of this? The Khan's court is not to be interrupted at this time!"

"Stand aside, Tsaagan." Zhenjin muttered, annoyed.

The jackal stiffened his posture. "Might I remind you, _Jinong_ , that my orders come not from you, but from the Khan himself?"

The male tiger sighed loudly and, right as Tsaagan was about to blabber on again, shoved the small canine roughly to the side and approached the doors. The masters followed the Mongol heir inside the building, and so did the jackal, albeit reluctantly. At either side of the main entryway were towering condors, who each did a double-take when seeing the same foreigners they'd dropped over the Gobi Desert more than a week before. Immediately after the first doors were yet another set, and here the tiger seemed to hesitate for just an instant, but then determinedly shoved them open nonetheless; creating a loud creak and revealing a bizarre scene to the Chinese foreigners.

The room within was dark, due to an insufficient number of lanterns and sconces within, and the ceiling was low - unlike the Chinese palaces they had seen before. An uncomfortable amount of smoke hung in the warm air, accompanied by the low, guttural sounds of an unfamiliar instrument that would come in long, fluttering notes. The masters' eyes adjusted slowly, and they initially could not make out the occupants of the room - only loose shapes and silhouettes clustered about. Looking downward, Crane's superior avian vision was the first to come into focus.

A decorated throne room extended before them, comprised of smooth stone walls and supports of stained redwood. The floor was occupied by well-to-do and important looking individuals who were lazily reclining on floor pillows; the opium pipes they smoked revealed the source of the thick vapors polluting the room. Having stood still for too long, Gan gave Po a shove from behind, and everyone started walking forward.

"Not a word, you three. We'll do the talking." the prince said with a half-glance behind in the masters' direction.

At the room's far wall, there was a raised platform with a large wooden throne; the newcomers could only assume that the person sitting in it now must be the Khan. Even from afar, they could see he had an impressive physique, but a ray of shade obscured his face - his luminescent eyes the only discernible trace of his visage. To the left and right of the throne were various other dignitaries and officials clamoring for his attention; but his eyes were not on them - fixed instead on the Chinese from the first moment they'd entered the room.

By the time the masters were halfway into the darkened area, most of the occupants had acknowledged their presence, and the musicians had stopped playing; the subtle mutterings of the Mongolian nobles were the only sounds remaining. As Crane passed by a leopardess on the floor, she began to giggle lightly, grabbing his attention.

"Hello again, pretty bird." she said, blowing a perfect ring of noxious smoke around Crane's beak.

When the vapor reached his nares, his lungs soundly rejected it, resulting in a loud, honking sneeze. The same leopardess who'd inflicted the wound to his wing laughed wildly at this, under the potent influence of the burning opium. Shaking his head and knowing now wasn't the time or place to settle his score with her, Crane continued walking along with the others. Nearing the throne at last, Tigress noticed that there were soldiers moving in the recesses of the dark chamber to their right, mirroring their steps closely as they approached the Khan. Looking to the left side, she found the same to be true there as well. The bodyguards were likely eagerly awaiting the kill order from their lord. Taking one last glance in their direction, she caught a glimpse of their tails - striped, just like hers.

The masters knew when to stop pacing forward when Zhenjin and Gan abruptly halted, kneeling before the throne. Unsure of whether to mimic these actions or not, the foreigners just stood there awkwardly. The bodyguards that had been watching them so closely up to this point filed in from either side of the throne and flanked the raised area where the Khan sat. Now standing in more light than before, they were revealed to be wearing heavy steel armor and bronze masks sculpted in the form of tiger faces.

Seeing the Chinese refusing to kneel, Tsaagan stood before them and began to speak in a loud authoritative tone.

"Outlanders, you stand before Khasar, Khan of Khans - Lord of Mongolia, Persia, Rus, Samarkand, Anatolia, and Crimea; honorary ruler of the Golden Horde, the Ilkhanate, and Chagatai. Show him the proper respect, or face his wrath."

Crane and Po lowered themselves without further hesitation; Tigress didn't budge. The golden eyes perched in the shaded throne tilted to the side, amused at her defiance; but after another moment, and a concerned look from Po, she too knelt before the ruler. Zhenjin was the first to stand and speak.

"Father, we discovered these foreigners in the lands to the northwest. They requested to be brought to you at once."

"And you did as they asked?" a husky voice questioned almost mockingly from the throne. "Why?"

Gan rose and stepped forth to be at the prince's side. "If I may speak on your son's behalf, my lord, it was not that simple. There were some... _complications_."

"What _kind_ of complications?" Khasar growled, even more annoyed than before. Tigress thought she could see a familiar shade of ashen-grey fur from where she knelt.

"The flesh eaters have returned; they've arisen as a result of the famine, no doubt."

The Khan and his adviser began to discuss the apparent food shortage in terminology that made little sense to the masters, and as they did so, Crane's eyes began to once again wander about the room once more. His gaze drifted to and fro, until abruptly stopping when spying a pair of large, dark brown ears.

Mei Ling seized up at once - she knew he'd seen her.

_No no no... not here, not now, not like this..._

The golden cat turned her head to the side, and backed further into the darkness. No matter what, she would refuse to meet his glare; she couldn't give him any certainly of her identity. Her canine fangs dug into her lower lip in a nervous panic as infinite moments continued to pass. Crane knew he was staring, but he really didn't care; some fragment of his very soul - a childlike hopefulness - was compelling him to peer into the darkness at this familiar figure. But his focus was forced back towards the throne as Gan had since stepped aside.

Khasar rose from his throne and took a half-stride forward, bringing his full body into the torchlight. The three masters almost jumped up to fight when their eyes were met with the near spitting-image of Tai Lung. But this impulse faded away, as they saw he was not the disgraced warrior back from the dead; his fur was thicker, his build smaller, and his voice - while similar - was not the same as the infamous son of Shifu. His whiskers were spread freely on each side of his maw, whereas Tai Lung's had been tamped downward. The ruler was dressed in a black and brown tunic that bore the same golden _Ulzii Khee_ mark as Tigress' outfit.

But despite these differences, the way the ruler spoke and carried himself - even the two small fangs that rose up from his lower jaw - were eerily reminiscent of a terror the masters had seen defeated years before.

"As I understand," Khasar started, addressing the masters directly for the first time, "the arrangement you made with my son ensured your protection - so long as you were taken to see me. Well, here I am."

As soon as he finished, the masked guards around the masters drew their longsabers and edged in on them, cutting off any possible route of escape. Tigress and Crane immediately were at each other's backs against the bodyguards, but Po surprised just about everyone by jumping forward to the Khan.

"Easy there, buddy! We don't want any trouble - just here to retrieve something." the panda started, attempting to bargain with the ruler, who hadn't even flinched. "This is Masters Crane and Tigress, and I'm Po, the Dragon Warrior."

_Warrior? He's a panda! What's a panda going to do in battle - sit on the enemy?_

"How interesting..." Khasar said halfheartedly as he reached for the grip of his saber, preparing to decapitate this foolish panda in a single strike.

But before he could do so, he caught a glimpse of the jade eyes before him, and was ensnared by them. The guards were waiting for their Khan to make the first move, but it did not come. Khasar had seen those eyes before - they haunted his dreams.

_The visions - the prophecy..._

In a frenzy of movement, his eyes darted about the room - from Po's monochrome fur, to the unwilted black and white lotus on a table in the far corner, and then to the Argali sheep huddled amongst the other court officials. Gazing at Subutai, the leopard's jaw parted open just a little, in utter disbelief of his own sudden revelation. The shaman gave a subtle - but definitive - nod, and Khasar's attention returned to Po. His paw released the saber grip as he determined what to say next.

"Welcome to Khanbaliq, outlanders."

The guards and the court officials alike looked at each other in confusion. The Khan then addressed the room as a whole. "The Chinese shall be my guests of honor. From henceforth they are under my protection - no harm comes to them without my approval."

Although in complete bewilderment at this about-face by the ruler, the masters were relieved to see the entire room kneel at the Khan's decree. Immediately following this, the court started to erupt with smaller discussions and gossip, and Khasar turned to the jackal beside him.

"Tsaagan - see to the needs of our new guests; this doesn't change our plans to feast tomorrow."

The jackal took a disapproving glance at the masters, but nodded in submissive understanding to his lord all the same. Khasar began to retreat back to his throne, and the three Chinese foreigners were escorted towards the exit by the guards. Tigress was consumed by a concerned skepticism of the recent developments, while Po was just excited to be not dead and attending a feast in the near future. Crane, however, could think of nothing but the figure he had seen for the briefest of moments.

* * *

"What are you not telling me, father?" Zhenjin demanded.

Only the Khan's family, Ganbataar, and Subutai remained in the now-deserted throne room. Unbeknownst to them, a golden cat still lingered in the shadows, overhearing their combative discourse.

"You are my son. What kind of a father would I be to keep secrets from you?"

Yuelun smiled intensely at this.

"Then tell me why you allowed those filthy _Tang ren_ to live!" the young tiger fired back.

The ruler let out an irritated groan from his reclined position in his throne. "It's quite simple, actually. These foreigners are obviously important individuals within China - the very country I plan to invade. Whether for intelligence or bargaining power, they _will_ prove useful in time."

"That... _does_ make sense..." Zhenjin said, apparently accepting his father's lies. "My apologies for doubting you, my Khan."

Gan and Subutai, who knew the Khan better than his own son ever would, were aware that there was far more at play than what Khasar had stated - but they did not dare speak up in disagreement at a time like this. Yuelun, still somewhat dazed from the opium, just watched the whole spectacle with amusement. Nadya was unsure of the discourse, and sat in contemplative silence, making a mental note to have a chat with her husband later on.

Having seen quite enough, Mei Ling moved stealthily from her hiding place to the exit. Reaching the open night air unscathed, she began to take in deep breaths, trying to come to grips with all that happened in the last hour. Crane - the bird she'd naively fallen in love with all those years ago at Lee Da - had come back into her life... right as she was about to accept that he was gone forever. The shock of it was crushing her. Likewise, she reached up with her paws, smashing her ears flat against the top of her head in frustration.

"I like the outfit - feathers are a nice touch." came a voice above and behind her. In her overwhelmed state, she hadn't noticed the avian who'd been perched above the doorway the entire time. As she turned around slowly, paws still on her head, the bird dropped down without the use of his wings, and seemed to stumble slightly in pain as a result.

"Xian... I-" the cat began, but realized she had no idea what to say.

Crane came closer, so that they could see each other clearly, even in the moon-less dark of night. The bird hadn't aged too badly since Mei Ling had last seen him, but he looked beaten up and run down, with muddied feathers and a makeshift bandage over his wing.

"I'd always hoped to see you again, Mei, but... but I hadn't imagined it would be like this." The bird tilted his neck slightly, and she could see that one of his eyes did not seem to open all the way. "Have you sided with these Mongols?"

As badly as she wanted to - and she almost did - the golden cat couldn't deny this outright. After seeing her failure to do so, Crane looked down and shook his head weakly.

"N-nothing makes... any sense..." he trailed off, legs beginning to wobble as they refused to support his body any longer.

In another instant, Crane collapsed towards the ground; two brown-furred arms embraced his form as he slipped into unconsciousness.


	18. Thinking of Earlier Times

To Crane, the room around him remained formless as his vision was still denied by heavy, tired eyelids. He was somewhat conscious at last, but to what degree, he was still unsure. The first thing the bird had noticed was the unusual sensation of resting on his back - this was not the way he naturally slept, but he found it to be comfortable, nonetheless. This was due in no small capacity to the cushioned surface he was lain upon, its form possessing a certain luxury that he had been denied for far too long.

The bird began to slowly awaken his outer senses, feeling his limbs begin to twitch and animate, and tactile sensation returned outward to the furthest points of his wingtips. His head propped up by what must have been a pillow of some sort, the area he now found himself in was cool, but not freezing; it also must have been very dimly lit, as even now, his eyes were fully content to stay closed. Crane was in a battle against his own fatigued body, for as it sensed no immediate danger, it continued to stay at rest; the weeks spent in the Mongolian wilderness had certainly taken its toll on him.

After a while, he began to register sounds - the creaking of wood, the muffled patter of rain outside, and voices... there were voices as well, but far too distant to make out.

There was an outburst of distant thunder, and this finally compelled the bird to awake with a start. The room was small, just spacious enough for the bed he'd been laid upon, a wash basin in the corner, and a pedestal where a magnificent weapon was perched. The insufficient candlelight in the area caused the wide metal head of the guandao spear to reflect the incandescence, becoming a mirror of the flickering flames. Looking down from the weapon, which had copper decorations infused into its long wooden shaft, Crane noticed that his right wing was stretched out to its full length on one side of the bed; the bandage of Tigress' robes which had once been tightly wrapped around it were now gone. The feathers at this part now looked discolored and sickly, but he was pleasantly surprised to find the dull throb of pain that had been ever-present over the past weeks was no longer there.

As he began to nudge his wing about, gently testing the limits of his newfound comfort, a commotion outside the room caused Crane's attention to snap towards the darkened wood door opposite himself.

"Why have you taken one of the outlanders into your quarters?" demanded the familiar gruff voice of the large leopard that accompanied the masters into Khanbaliq.

"That is none of your business." was the response from a golden cat Crane had never expected to see again.

_Mei Ling..._

The avian tried his best to recall what had happened the night before, but his mind was foggy, and his memory eluded him.

"Don't play me for a fool - you know this one, don't you?!"

There was a pause. Crane's eyes widened when hearing the accusation.

"Yes... yes I do."

Another pause, longer than before.

"No - I can't believe this..." the male said.

"I have said nothing of that matter!" Her voice had sounded different; hesitant, but desperate all the same.

"Ah, but you have told me everything." The wooden floor outside the room creaked with a shift of weight, indicating Mei Ling's visitor was taking his leave.

In this moment, the events of the night before finally came back to the avian; he had been so ready to confront her, to ask all of his questions, but then... everything had turned to blackness.

Mei Ling pushed open the door to the room, and found herself looking directly at Crane, their eyes meeting immediately.

"You're awake..." she stated, her spirit sinking when realizing that the bird had just overheard the previous conversation in its entirety.

At first Crane wasn't able to summon any words, just staring at the golden cat for several seconds. Seeing her in a similar disposition, however, caused him to break the stalemate of silence.

"Why are you here?" the bird said, immediately recalcitrant at his sudden forcefulness.

Mei seemed to gather herself for a brief moment, and at last moved forward, closing the distance between the doorway and the bed Crane was laying upon. Sitting on the side with the bird's outstretched right wing, she diverted her eyes down to her paws. The avian master wondered what thoughts rushed through the cat's mind, as the way she ran her digits over her paw pads back and forth made her unease all too apparent. As they were now rather close, hearing the subtle sound of her breathing calmed him; she felt _real_ again, not just a far-off ideal in his mind that was perpetually moving out of reach as he flew against the wind.

"The leopard that you arrived at the Khan's palace with..."

"He's your father, isn't he?"

Mei Ling was saddened, but not surprised in the slightest; Crane - or Lu Xian as she truly knew him - had always been extremely perceptive. Just as it had for her father, her silence gave Crane all the answers he needed.

"His name is Ganbataar, the highest-ranking commoner in the Mongol realm, personal bodyguard and adviser to the Khan himself."

Feeling confident in his right aileron at last, the bird slowly retracted the outstretched wing towards his body; Mei's brown tail subconsciously moved up onto the bed and filled the vacant space. She still wasn't entirely focused on Crane, and he elected not to prod her with questions as aggressively.

"He certainly seems loyal to his cause..." he started innocently enough; but something he had said bothered her right away.

"Hmph." The corner of her mouth curled upwards in disgust. " _Loyalty._ It is my father's greatest strength; but also his most grievous sin."

The words apparently carried meaning far beyond the astute perception of the bird master. Mei looked just as desolate as she'd been all those years ago when he'd last seen her, as if the passage of time had changed nothing not all.

"If you were to ask Gan, he'd tell you I'm here in Khanbaliq because of that same devotion."

Crane finally pulled himself up off of the bed and stood upright in front of where the cat was seated.

"And are you?" he asked, increasingly feeling that he was conversing with a stranger.

Mei Ling shook her head, still looking downwards. Crane could no longer suppress his confused irritation.

"Why did you never tell me of any of this? I thought I knew you, Mei."

The golden cat held a pained grimace of shame, and uncomfortable silence enveloped the room once more.

"My true name is Kokejin." she said at last, every word requiring seemingly great effort. "But that is a name - and a life - I had forgotten when I was a student at Lee Da. The duties dictated by my parentage were never ones I planned to fulfill."

The more she tried to explain, the less sense anything made to Crane.

"But why abandon all that you know? China is the ancient enemy of your people!"

"It was because of you, Xian." She looked up to face him. "When I saw you use your potential to fulfill your dream, I realized that I could be whatever I wanted... that my fate was my own. There were so many things about you that I came to admire - to love, even."

Now Crane was the one to look away, thinking of earlier, simpler times; Mei was only thinking of regrets. She should have told him - she knew that now. But could she truly be blamed – hoping, in her youth, for the past to bleed away to nothingness?

"But how naive I was then." she said in a weak tone, standing up. "I found that what I _truly_ wanted... acted against all that you had worked so hard to achieve."

"I- I had just hoped you'd have come to see me again..." Crane mumbled, disconsolate. The immense weight of the years of loneliness threatened to crush him.

Mei Ling had always been able to see Crane in a way others could not, and knew how to console him. Moving closer to the bird, she gently placed a paw under his beak and lifted it upwards to look into his tired russet eyes.

"You became _Master Crane_ \- everything you ever wanted; I can't force you to throw it all away."

Their sudden closeness made Mei feel something she had not intended, and realizing this, she abruptly removed her paw and backed away.

"I'm... I'm doing it right now!"

"Doing what?" Crane demanded, suddenly robbed of a feeling he'd missed for so long.

"We shouldn't have met here! I-"

In an instant, Crane moved forward, wrapping the cat in the secure, protective embrace of his wings. Leaning his neck in towards the utterly stunned feline, he began to whisper into her ear.

"I have missed you... more than you can imagine."

Her form, initially frozen in shock, loosened when hearing this, and she began to reciprocate the action. They tried to heal what time itself had neglected.

* * *

_Left, right._

_Left, right._

A stiff breeze; starlight and misted rain. The constant thumping of orange-striped paws against wood.

_I thought I was beyond this..._

High atop a temple in the center of Khanbaliq, Tigress stood parallel to the thick redwood flagpole that rose up from the roof of the building - punching into it without respite. The recent events of their mission surged through her mind, prompting outbursts of rage that came in waves. Her actions were unacceptable - fully unfitting of a warrior of her caliber. And what was that worth? What was all her raw strength and ability worth if she could still be such a fool? Her strikes started to come at the post even harder, and the tiger began to speculate what others might think of her compromised state. Po... The Five... _her master._ When thinking of Shifu, Tigress struck the wood with her mightiest punch yet, and there was a feint cracking sound that rippled all the way to the top of the pole.

_Failure... so much failure! I need to-_

"It appears that you are one that favors _actions over words_." a voice behind the striped cat observed.

Tigress turned about to discover that the same leopardess who had recognized Crane in the throne room earlier had joined her on the temple rooftop. Not seeing her as a threat, the tiger only registered the snow leopard's presence for a short moment, before turning back to abuse her improvised wooden target some more. The spotted cat was amused by this, and circled around to the other side of the flagpole to face her striped counterpart. Her face, clearly defined in the darkness of deep night by her luminous purple eyes, was now a matter of inches from where Tigress was punching mercilessly. Regardless, the leopardess didn't flinch in the slightest as she observed with smug interest.

"What troubles you?"

Her voice had sounded toneless, removed.

"The past." the tiger answered simply between strikes, doing her best to appear unimpressed with the leopardess' sudden appearance.

The purple-eyed cat smiled to herself, but did not bare her teeth as she paced closer to the edge of the roof, overlooking the few lights that remained in the city below. An orange haze that rose up from the opposite end of town denoted the square where the army of snow leopards was camped within the walls. The air was clearer atop the high spires of the temple, and the leopardess took in a deep breath of the ozone brought on by the night rains before she spoke again.

"There is no present or future - only the past, happening over and over again."

This caused Tigress to stop punching; it was an odd proverb, one she'd never heard before.

"Where did you hear this saying?"

"We used to have a Buddhist monk here in Khanbaliq - would go on all the time about how 'life is suffering' and all that."

Tigress was starting to grow uneasy about the other cat - the leopardess was acting _far_ too comfortable around her.

"Do... do you think he was right in saying these things?" the tiger asked hesitantly.

The spotted cat chuckled a little as she looked over the roof's edge, the droplets of mist starting to settle into her fur.

"I wouldn't know - I lopped his head off before he'd explained such subtleties."

Tigress looked over the leopardess again, much more carefully this time. Certain features that she had ignored before were now highlighted - a larger frame, sharper claws, a tail that became striped towards the tip.

"Who are you?"

Clearly this particular inquiry was what the spotted cat had been waiting for, as her tail twitched, revealing a vindicating pleasure.

"One might say that I am a princess - a princess who fancies herself a warrior, and wishes she were a prince." She turned to Tigress, offering an open paw pad. "Name's Yuelun."

Tigress didn't trust the paw before her, so she refrained from taking it into her own. Yuelun's face looked disappointed, but far from surprised as she drew her arm back; she took her own chance to carefully look over her feline counterpart.

"Mmm... yes. It appears that the far more interesting question is: who are _you?_ "

There it was: _that question again._

Tigress initially wanted to answer accurately and briefly as she usually did, but such intention became caught in her throat. She remembered the last time she'd given someone her name, and suspected Yuelun would exhibit a similar response to her brother.

_But who am I, really? Why take pride in an empty name?_

Yuelun watched as the tiger's silence drew on, and noticed the orange paws begin to form tightly-balled fists. The leopardess smiled - the striped cat was making herself easy to read, her inner turmoil clear as day.

Tigress was commanding herself to push down the emotions, to maintain the discipline she'd cultivated from years of mental training. It was a losing battle. With a quick growl, she flipped around and unleashed her fury back into the foot-thick base of the wooden pole, cleaving it apart with a thunderous strike; the shattered chips of wood flew out in all directions and fell along with the drops of rain to the streets below.

* * *

As Gan paced his way through the halls of the royal palace complex, he was deathly silent; his mind was elsewhere.

_I can't believe this... my daughter and a bird!_

He resisted the urge to punch a hole through one of the plaster walls.

_Just think of what the children will look like - feathered abominations! What a disgrace!_

Like most traditionalist Mongols, Gan had been raised to despise the notion of felines being with avians or any other 'lesser' species; such relations were seen as being against the natural order of things.

His temper was beginning to flare out of control, and he forced himself to rein in his state of mind, as he was nearing his destination; his queen had summoned him.

Gan found the Khatun of Mongolia studying the width of a long-embroidered tapestry that ran the length of her entire chamber.

The two guards posted at the entryway moved aside, and he stepped through into the queen's lavishly furnished quarters.

This was far from the first time the snow leopard had noticed the large work of art in the room, but he had never paid it much mind, let alone studied its features in the way his queen so often did. Commissioned months before as an honorary work to the military exploits of the Mongol Khanate, the subject matter was direct and forceful. Intricately sewn into the cloth were dozens of Mongol warriors in battle formations; some were on all fours circling the enemy, while others stood upright, loosing their numerous arrows. In the distance, a foreign tenshu was being reduced to rubble under a hail of siege projectiles, the victorious nomads taking no prisoners. Befitting a shameless propaganda piece, the various enemies of the nomadic tribes - the Chinese, Rus, and Turks - were depicted as soulless demons, eyes red and fangs bared. Most of these foes littered the ground, full of arrows. Khasar Khan himself stood in the very center with his retainers, uncontested masters of the battlefield.

Off to the right side of the tapestry, two expert weavers where still working diligently at their craft, the Khatun overseeing their every stitch. She had since noticed the arrival of her husband's adviser, and began to speak while still watching the work being done.

"I wonder now what history will say of such violence."

Gan usually didn't have the patience for such inquiries, but he indulged the Khatun's curiosity nonetheless, carefully eyeing over the tapestry in a timely manner.

"Conflict breeds conflict, and no culture can ever be immune to the allure of war." the leopard answered at last.

Nadya's expression brightened briefly. "Gan, I fear age has cultivated far too much stoicism in you..."

Out of respect, the snow leopard did not answer the Siberian tiger with a retort. Instead, he ran his paw over his wounded shoulder that had been recently pierced by a dagger.

Finally stepping down from her artistic oversight, the queen stood to face the snow leopard for a respite of sorts.

"If my husband does not make war, he has no peace. While Khasar has proven himself capable time and again, I worry about my son's ability to do the same."

Gan was in the unique position of being personally close to both the Khan and Khatun, a trait that tended to keep oneself alive amidst the bloodbath of court politics. Between Nadya's words, the aged leopard had seen an important truth.

_Ah, so this is why I'm here._

"You think the kid won't be up to the task?"

"A son is certainly doomed to fail if his own father will not confide in him, wouldn't you agree?"

Obviously, Gan had no intention of taking a side between the two rulers, regardless of the fact that he personally agreed with the Khatun's concerns.

"Whether I agree or not, it is not my place to say, my lady." he answered, trying to satiate her with a humble bow.

But she clearly wasn't having any of his patronizing behavior.

"Nonsense, you're just as close - if not closer - to my husband than me. He respects your opinion."

"Telling another man how to raise his son tends to destroy such respect." he started, carefully glancing over Nadya's face to ensure he hadn't gone too far. "You truly wish me to do this?"

The look in her eyes - almost begging - said yes.

Gan exhaled.

"Alright... I'll-"

He didn't get to finish, as the large orange paw of the Khatun shot up to grasp his shoulder. Her eyes were not on Gan, but instead the entryway behind him.

A burst of adrenaline surged through the old snow leopard.

"What?" he whispered.

"Aren't our palace guards supposed to wear masks..."

The individual hairs of Gan's fur began to stand on his neck as he slowly turned back to the two guards in the chamber entryway; they indeed weren't wearing the official masks of the Kheshig guards, only darkened cloth that covered their faces.

"Identify yourselves!" the old warrior commanded, naturally moving his paws to where his sabers usually rested, only to discover he was unarmed.

The two 'guards' took a silent glance at each other, then back to the tiger and leopard in the room. They drew their sabers without further hesitation.

"Assassins!" one of the weavers screamed as both servants tried to make a run for the room's only exit. It was a futile effort, as the two undercover killers dispatched them almost effortlessly in quick, calculated strikes.

Needing to protect his queen and without a weapon, Gan quickly assessed the situation and kicked over the nearest table, which absorbed several throwing knives that the assassins had launched at them with unnatural speed.

"Shit!" he exclaimed, seeing the blades penetrate the thin wood of the table, one of them almost puncturing his nose.

The leopard was thinking again, but an easy way out of their predicament eluded him. Looking over at Nadya, he saw that she was tearing off the lower parts of her dress that would restrict her movement, slashing the cloth cleanly with her claws. She seemed to have a plan of her own.

"Take one of them to your side, I'll take one to mine." she said with surprising calm in her tone.

His soldier instincts kicked in, and Gan took his orders without question. The leopard and tiger leapt out from behind the improvised cover simultaneously and headed for opposite sides of the chamber. As they each dodged various projectiles from the two assailants, both adopted the rudimentary strategy of throwing whatever they could get their paws on at their enemy. For Gan, it was several wooden chairs that broke apart as the nearest assassin sliced into them; for Nadya, it was a large marble pedestal of tremendous weight which she launched at her attacker with ease. Caught unprepared for such a feat of strength, the intruder jumped aside of it, dropping their weapons in the process.

Taking advantage, the female tiger leapt forward at her smaller foe, kicking away a shorter blade the shrouded figure had drawn. Across the room, Gan's attacker had unveiled a chained weapon that they shot outward; the projectile wrapped itself around the snow leopard's forearm, pulling him towards his foe. Initially Gan's claws burrowed into the wooden floor, but the force of the assassin pulling on the chain soon dragged him to his knees. The leopard turned himself around just in time to push against the blade now being pressed against his throat, desperately trying to prevent it from cutting across. Glancing to the side, he watched as Nadya threw the other assassin – now unconscious – through the adjacent wall.

Just as Gan was about to give in to the determined attacker, one of the two assassin's own weapons came flying across the chamber and perforated through the skull of the one pinning the snow leopard. A serrated saber blade now projected forth through the open mouth of the assassin, and as they dropped lifelessly to the ground, Gan had an unobstructed view of the one who'd thrown the weapon with such precision.

"Reminiscent of the old days, eh?" the old veteran mused, wiping some of the blood splatter from his facial fur.

"Quite."

Nadya moved across the room to be closer to Gan.

"Funny." She nudged the body of the assassin aside with her foot. "Last I checked, _you_ were supposed to be the bodyguard in this situation."

Laughing, they smiled at one another, and their eyes lingered together for a bit too long.


	19. Feast of Decadence

"Assassins, you say?"

"Yes, my lord."

Having been about to push open the door into the main hall of his palace where his nobles and guests of honor were feasting, the Khan stepped back into the adjoining antechamber towards Ganbataar instead, interest piqued.

"It wasn't..." he started, but Gan cut him off immediately.

"No. If it had been _her_ , I figure we'd all be dead by now."

Khasar nodded in silent understanding.

"Then how can you be sure of the identity of these intruders?" he asked, now impatient.

"One of the assailants was still alive, and I was able to get quite a bit of information out of him - not without a little _persuasion,_ of course." Gan answered, upturning one of his paws; it was coated in blood and fur that was not his own.

The Khan grinned.

"Indeed. And what of their origin?"

The adviser hesitated for a moment, planning his words carefully.

"It appears that some of our friends back in Karakorum... are no longer our friends. The assassins received their contract there."

When hearing this, Khasar turned his head to the side, suppressing a growl.

"The turmoil in this land seems to have no end."

Gan scoffed. "I hear that in the western lands, they fight over such _lofty_ things as religion..."

The ruler cracked a slight smile at his adviser's musing, before returning the conversation to the matter at hand.

"The clan officials in the old capital have always been traitorous bastards, but sponsoring assassins... I'd thought that to be below them."

The leopard ruler paced even further back into the darkness of the chamber, frustration building.

"Any clue as to why they've become so emboldened as of late?"

Gan was now wearing lighter, more ceremonial attire for the coming feast, and scratched at his rarely-exposed chest before giving another answer; one which he knew would only further infuriate his ruler.

"We did manage to get something else out of the assassin before he topped off; apparently, there's a rather charismatic rebel leader gaining influence over some of our generals."

This, of course, caused the Khan to stop his meandering at once.

"A claimant to my throne?!" he projected in outrage.

"Possibly; the person in question is not yet known to us by name. That is all."

_A nameless insurrectionist? That's just wonderful..._

Khasar looked as if about to lash out with rage, but a sudden uproar of laughter from the feast progressing in the adjacent room reminded him of other matters that must be attended to. Turning about, he walked back up towards the doorway, the opening of which was cracked open ever so slightly; it allowed a single band of orange torchlight to pass through onto the ruler's face.

"It seems now is not the time to speak of such things." he started, placing a paw upon the wooden door. "And Gan..."

"Yes?"

"You have my thanks - for protecting my wife."

Gan hid a smirk.

_It was more like the other way around..._

Before the warrior could get too lost in his recollection of recent events, Khasar finally opened the door to the main hall, and he followed his lord obediently. As soon as they had entered, the gathering erupted into cheers and applause.

But the loyal adviser knew it was all a big farce anyway; a false reprieve for the influential and wealthy from the degrading state of the nation outside. Between the Khan and his court, both parties had grown increasingly disdainful of the other - it was destined to be a night of faked smiles and empty pleasantries. It was at times such as these that he did not envy his liege in the slightest.

Gan watched as Khasar made his way into the thick of the crowd, and calmly observed the rest of the gathering. A party of around sixty patrons and nobles were seated about the place - mostly in no particular order - as slaves and palace servants waited upon their every whim and request. Their flamboyant gestures and drunken parlay were what the leopard had come to expect from these parties, but what made this night unique was the presence of the Khan's foreign guests, who stood out like birch trees on a grassed plain.

The Chinese tiger was reclining against the far wall, arms crossed; much like Gan, she was carefully watching the crowd in silence. Since she was directly across from where the leopard stood, the two onlookers soon locked icy gazes; the smog and din of the room fell away to nothingness for the briefest moment.

Nonetheless, the glaring of the two felines was interrupted as a servant approached the striped cat, carrying a platter of freshly brewed tea.

The tiger spurned the offer immediately, looking annoyed as she motioned it away.

Glancing off to the far right side of the room, Gan spied the bird Kung Fu master; the avian was surrounded by several onlookers who were amazed by his apparent expertise with the strings of the _m_ _orin khuur._ The leopard growled when he saw that his daughter was among the spectators, but decided against any unwise actions in the presence of so many dignitaries.

The third foreign master, the panda, was sitting in the middle of the feast with the members of the Khan's court. It was here that the most esteemed plutocrats of Khanbaliq were left speechless by the bear master's voracious appetite; noodles, dumplings, grains, pine nuts - it did not matter - all were being consumed just as quickly as the table servants could bring it forth. Some of the more inebriated members of the Khan's inner circle began chanting and egging on the panda, as Khasar himself sat in solitary indifference, head propped up by an elbow on the table.

Having waited back long enough, Gan moved into the fray and took his seat near his lord, who was himself flanked on all sides by wealthy looking, well-groomed snow leopards. The sole exceptions were the Khan's daughter, Yuelun, and a golden eagle that perched itself nonchalantly in the rafters directly above the table. At that moment, the panda's consumption of food seemed to slow ever so slightly, and the Khan seized upon the chance to open a conversation at last.

"So remind me again, you are...?" the ruler trailed off, his disdain for the panda's appetite evident.

"Po, the Dragon Warrior."

The reply had been barely discernible due to all the food in the bear's mouth. Despite this, the officials around the table seemed to look at one another and nod to indicate understanding. The Khan decided to speak for them all.

"Yes, the Dragon Warrior title is known to us. It is said that you fight with honor."

"Really?" Po beamed suddenly in a voice that raised a few brows nearby.

The Khan threw back the drink in front of him before speaking.

"As you know, I am Khasar, ruler of Mongolia and a loyal servant of Tengri. You've already met Gan, here." he said, gesturing in the direction of his adviser, who gave a simple nod to Po.

The panda gave a half-smile.

"Above us is Altan," he added as the scruffy eagle waved a wing at Po. "veteran of Tsushima, and general of my armies."

The sole female leopard at the end of the table sighed loudly.

" _General..._ As if that title means anything when there is no army to lead."

The Khan glared at the girl, wordlessly demanding she speak no further. She rolled her eyes, putting her attention back to her own food, and the Khan turned his focus to Po once more.

"And that's my daughter, Yuelun."

Based on the look she was giving him, the panda knew not to address her in any way. Unconcerned with Po's discomfort, the Khan was content to continue.

"Your arrival was foretold, Dragon Warrior. We thank the Eternal Blue Sky for bringing you into our fold."

Po squinted his eyes in confusion.

"Your _fold?_ "

The area around the table seemed to grow a bit quieter, such that Crane's playing of the Mongol instrument could be heard, but the Khan ignored Po's question all the same.

"Tell me, panda, what do you know of the magic they call _Chi?_ "

It had sounded as if the ruler hadn't even tried to hide the eagerness in his tone. In many circumstances, Po would be only too happy to drown someone in his knowledge of Chi, everything he had learned and studied since the arrival of the Jade Slayer. He would've done the same again, had he not taken the slightest glance up. Though he'd begun to grow accustomed to the Khan's visage, for the briefest moment he had seen Tai Lung sitting across from him, staring with that uncanny hunger in his eyes.

Po's mouth opened briefly, only to close once more - surely there had to be words to say, and yet he could not summon them.

Suddenly, a light thump against the panda's leg alerted him to the presence of someone standing to his side.

"We appreciate your hospitality _,_ but we _really_ must be going." the familiar voice of the tiger master pressed, her tone apathetic.

The Khan seemed somewhat surprised at this, but saw no reason not to oblige their request given the present company, maintaining his composure all the while.

In an instant, Po was up from his seat and being ushered out the door by a paw pressed a bit too forcefully against his back.

* * *

Perhaps it was all meant to impress them.

The living quarters that the masters had been provided embodied nothing less than palatial extravagance. Their very own siheyuan residence, the decoration of the place signified that practically no expense had been spared in its construction. There were high walls, tiled roofing, bronze dragons, an inner courtyard complete with its own fountain; a steady stream of clear water flowed out from the mouth of a coiled serpentine demon. The small complex even came with personal servants. To the surprise of the foreigners, many such buildings in the rich district of Khanbaliq seemed to be built in a familiar Chinese style, laying bare the envy the nobles of the Mongol realm held for the civilization in the southern lands.

The rains that had plagued the early morning that day had since given way to a cloudless night with innumerous stars visible in the sky above. Within the enclosed forum, Crane still experimented with the odd Mongolian string instrument as Po and Tigress conversed over the events of the feast that had taken place earlier in the evening. His wing would glide the silken bow over the tightly-wound strings to and fro, the talons of his leg articulating various notes in sequence, producing a guttural rhythm. In his peripheral vision, he casually observed the turn of events between the other two masters; how Tigress would scathingly assert the seriousness of their predicament, only for Po to counter by defending his own actions. For the avian, the deep timbre of the instrument often drowned out the sounds of his companions' voices entirely.

But with the ebb and flow of the parlance, the conversation soon became argumentative once more.

"What other options do we have?!" Po said, exasperated.

"Anything would be better than this; we are sitting and waiting, giving the enemy the initiative!"

"Enemy? Would an _enemy_ treat us like this?" the panda asked in reply, waving his arms towards the opulence surrounding them.

Tigress' amber eyes, now subtly glowing in the nighttime darkness, fixated on Po in a way he found to be truly intimidating.

"Do not be lulled by false courtesy; we are _prisoners_ here, Po."

In a huff, he turned away from the tiger, walking over towards the sinuous fountain.

"Men like the Khan don't become powerful by sparing their enemies - the only reason we're still alive is so that we can be manipulated, _used._ " Tigress asserted. "We need a more aggressive plan of action, to get what we came for and leave this place!"

The panda brought a paw up to his chin, answering the feline master as he continued to search for a cooler temperament amongst the flowing waters before him.

"You want us to take a risk like that? If we make the slightest mistake - which is likely, given that we don't even know where the weapon is - do you like our chances against an entire army?"

Riled by Po's unwillingness to see from her point of view, it was now the tiger who was unwilling to respond.

Consumed by frustration, a dangerous thought crossed Tigress' mind - the kind one regrets immediately, but cannot deny it had ensnared their consciousness for the briefest of moments.

"Enough of this." she said with a sudden calmness that made Po turn to face her once more. "I will see you both tomorrow."

The feline made for the closest courtyard opening which lead into one of the residential chambers of the siheyuan. Two leopardess servants appeared at the door, ready to accommodate her; when seeing the look on her face, they instead elected - wisely - to stand clear of her path.

Seeing her exit, Po came over to where Crane was and sat on the ground, leaning against one of the bronze dragons.

"She just needs a chance to clear her head." Po said, trying to counter the concerned look the bird master was giving him. "She'll be fine."

"These days, I'm not so sure." Crane put the instrument down, standing to his full height once more.

Po hadn't really believed his own words, anyway. Eager to speak of something else, he turned his attention to the morin khuur that was now lain upon the dew-crested moss next to the bird.

"Crane... how do you even know how to play that thing?"

"Ah, this? It's surprisingly similar to an Erhu, actually; I just had to adjust my form a bit."

Po recalled that Crane was a rather adept player of the traditional Chinese instrument, one of his many talents that the bird cultivated in solitude.

"And the song you were playing earlier..." the panda started to say.

"Something I composed in honor of Oogway, but I'm afraid it sounds a bit different when played on this nomad's fiddle, though."

Po had loved the tune nonetheless, but hearing the wise tortoise master's name brought other thoughts to his mind; he realized he ought to meditate on the current state of events, in the hope that he could act with wisdom.

"Well, I think I'm going to call it a night." he announced, starting to stand.

"Po, wait."

_That's odd..._

Even with the abnormal circumstances of late, Po was surprised to hear Crane continue a conversation unnecessarily.

"There's something I've been meaning to ask you." the bird master admitted.

Po sat back down immediately, intrigued, and perhaps a little anxious.

"I've been thinking about the business with Kai a lot recently..."

"Yeah - what about it?"

The avian was gazing downward at the ground below himself, aimlessly dragging a talon across the place where humid moss met the stone tiles of the courtyard.

"To be honest, it was about _you_ ; what it put you through, the decisions you had to make."

"Crane, I'm fine..."

"I know you are." the bird answered with a quickness that supported his claim. "Believe me, we wouldn't have survived out here this long without you, Po."

To hear such a claim from one of his lifelong heroes filled the panda with an unparalleled pride - one which he was determined to keep hidden for the sake of humility.

"But what I'm really asking you for, is advice."

Naturally, this only further confused the Dragon Warrior, but he sat in silence, allowing his fellow master to continue.

"Do you recall when you met your father - the panda one, that is - for the first time? What was it like for you?"

Po wanted to give an answer immediately, but found that he required a moment to reflect on what had been a rather turbulent moment in his life. Perhaps this effect was what the bird had intended.

"It was... _sudden;_ I never saw it coming." he said, still a little uncertain. "I just didn't want to believe it was _true_ at first. Like, after all this time, how could it really be them, ya know?"

_I know, more than you can imagine... I know._

"Then the surprise of it wore off." the panda added, jade eyes examining the stars above. "And I started to think about what it really meant..."

"The feeling that there was another path, an entire life you would have lived."

The bird had spoken as if their minds were one.

"And I still could have lived it." Po said, gazing blankly to a distance neither of them could see. "My father... he just wanted us to be together; for me to have the life I was _supposed_ to have."

"What stopped you from going with him? Was it a sense of duty?" Crane asked.

"No."

The avian master just stood there, vexed by the certainty of Po's response.

"I didn't leave, because I could never abandon what I love." the panda said, standing up again. "First it was Kung Fu, but in time it became the masters that fought by my side."

"What do you mean?" Crane stuttered out, trying to discern the implications of what the Dragon Warrior had just said.

"You asked me for advice..." Po showed a passing smile. "You think too much."

He reached out and put a single digit against the bird's chest; upon contact, a small ripple of golden Chi dispersed over his feathers.

" _This..._ is the only thing that really matters."

With that, the panda master turned to leave, and Crane was left alone.

The avian watched the chilled midnight wind slowly kill the courtyard torches one by one, waiting in pensive silence for daybreak.

* * *

The relentless late-afternoon heat was only made bearable by a stiff sea-breeze as the rising tide lapped against the lower docks and quays of Gongmen City. The sun having just begun to set, the glints of light refracted off of the sharply-angled verdant roofing of the city's buildings, and into the calm waters below.

Sails billowing, a darkly hulled and cargo-laden junk maneuvered the shallows of the harbor, moving into the canal slipways. The wealthy, well-to-do citizens barely took notice of the vessel, as countless such ships made port with each turning of the tide. The smell of brine, the sounds of groaning timber and blowing canvas were all too unanimous to find intriguing.

But the ship was no ordinary merchant craft or passenger barge. This, of course, would have been obvious had the ship been flying its Song Dynasty imperial standard. As the junk slid into its mooring position and was tied into place, the captain - who was too proud to admit the flag had been lost to Wokou raiders off Shandong - was the first to take leave of the ship. The old pig hastily vanished into the crowds, leaving his crew behind.

This left the chief passenger of the vessel, an antelope wearing expensive red garb, to deal with the docking reception. As the sailors went about tending to the ship, he somewhat hesitantly approached the gangplank that led to solid ground.

Waiting for him on the dock were two towering figures. One, significantly larger and with a muscular physique, was an ox; the other was quite clearly a crocodile with dangerous-looking weapons. The duo were both clad in expensive armor, and stood impatiently with their arms crossed.

"Are you the regional messenger from Qingdao?" the ox bellowed out.

The antelope took the final step off of the gangplank and found himself completely alone from the rest of the crew.

"Well... not exactly." he started as the crocodile stared him down. "I'm actually his secretary - the regional messenger is preoccupied at the moment."

"Ah. So that makes you the _assistant to_ the regional messenger, then." the croc said, looking to his counterpart. "You can't make this up - the snob won't even grace us with his presence any longer. Must have scared him off!"

"Wait!" the antelope begged, trying to be heard over the laughter of the larger two. "I still bear an important message! Under the emperor's laws, you are bound to allow me access to the local magistrate!"

This succeeded in quieting the two warriors, but their demeanor did not indicate they had yielded.

"Gongmen is subject to its own laws - the emperor's name carries much less sway here than it does upriver in Hangzhou." the ox said, making the messenger shrivel in fear.

"You're lucky we even allow this pointless formality in the first place." the croc added. "Otherwise, you'd have no job."

"Yes, yes - I've heard enough!"

The two looked at each other briefly before turning about to lead the messenger into the city.

"Come along then." the bovine said, his deep voice still setting the antelope on edge. "Try not to fall behind."

There was a brief amount of time where the three traversed an open wharf before inevitably heading into the forest of rich green-roofed buildings. In this clearing, there were mostly stockpiles of cargo and the mechanical wooden cranes which raised and lowered the heavier loads.

The antelope found one spectacle in particular to be perplexing: a lone derrick was suspending a massive object - which looked as if it had recently been removed from the sea - only a few inches above the ground. A crew of Gongmen laborers stood in a circle around the cylindrical mass with warhammers; they took turns whacking away at the form, each strike removing barnacles and other marine growths.

The substance underneath was revealed to have dull, metallic luster.

There were the defined fangs of a dragon's head at the front of the cylinder, and the imperial representative recognized this hulking shape for what it really was.

_So the stories are true._

"That's not... what I _think_ it is, right?"

" _That_ is none of your concern." the large reptile walking in front of him snapped.

It wasn't so much the crocodile's tone that kept the antelope deathly silent; it was the steel morningstar affixed to his muscular tail, always hanging just a few feet from the messenger's face.

The three cut their way through the crowded streets and alleyways of the seaside town, the smell of cooking rice and expensive spices mixing pleasantly into the salty air. The messenger took note of how the denizens of Gongmen bowed respectfully before the two warriors leading him, making space for their passing-by.

At last, they found their way to the main avenue of the city, a sloping street that lead downhill and back up again in the distance toward a tight grouping of three massive towers; the one in the middle was significantly taller, and it's many tiers were emblazoned with golden flame-like architectural projections that glistened in the sunlight. The two flanking buildings seemed to only amplify this dazzling effect, as they were the only buildings in the city to have gold-colored roof tiles.

"Hey - messenger!"

The antelope realized that he had been in such awe of the far-off spectacle that he had stopped in the middle of the street. The ox, which had just called to him, was now standing with the crocodile on the porch of yet another impressive building. This one was much smaller by comparison - rising only two stories - but was decorated just as richly.

"We are here." the bovine added.

The imperial watched as two military personnel, antelopes like him, flung open the doors to the building. The two warriors entered.

"Do you two mind telling me your names?"

"I am Master Croc; this is Master Storming Ox. We are representatives of the Masters Council." the reptile said plainly as he moved into the interior of the building; he sat at a table and chair that had clearly been custom built for him.

_Ugh... I should've known. These Kung Fu masters and their asinine 'titles' system..._

The messenger put on a deceptively warm smile.

"Ah, it is an honor to meet you. My name is-"

"Not important." Ox said, having preferred to stand in the center of the room. "State your message, _messenger._ "

"Apologies, but I have orders to deliver this directly to the magistrate."

Ox crossed his large, intimidating arms.

"The Magistrate of Gongmen is busy - she doesn't like to be disturbed."

"But this is of the utmost importance!" the antelope pleaded.

"That-" Croc took a moment to pour himself a generous serving of tea from the table. "It is for _us_ to decide."

The messenger tried to look around for some other person in the room - a source of reason, perhaps - but it was just the three of them. With an exhale, he conceded, unrolling an official scroll so that he could read from it.

"Our spies along the northern borders report increased military activity in Mongol-held lands; this is supported by the Magistrate of Xiangyang, and a number of other local governors. The imperial military council has decreed that all municipalities and townships begin levying serfs and conscripting from the commoners."

The messenger paused and looked up; Croc was casually sipping his drink and Ox remained just as annoyed as before.

"It is the opinion of the council," he continued, "that invasion is imminent. China must be made ready for war."

The antelope closed the scroll.

"Is that all?" Ox asked.

"Well... yes."

The imperial was at a loss for how the masters could not see the direness of the situation in the message he had just delivered.

"Forgive me, but you two seem... _unconcerned._ "

"That's because we _are_ unconcerned." Croc said, smiling as he got up from where he was sitting. "We have been receiving such messages for over a year now - the 'invasion' you speak of isn't coming."

"But... but what if it does!?" the antelope said, stomping his hoof into the wooden floor. "What then?"

"Thank you for your visit." Ox said, stepping forward as well.

The messenger backed away, frightened, but quickly pointed the scroll he was holding at the masters accusingly.

"The emperor himself will hear of this - I swear it!"

Croc laughed heartily.

"Go ahead and tell him; wish him good luck in finding an army big enough to force Gongmen into submission!"

The antelope waved his arm at them dismissively and left in a huff, starting the long walk back to his ship. Following his departure, the two masters emerged at the front of the building once more.

"So that was the messenger's assistant, huh? Wonder who they will send next time..." the reptile mused.

"Ha! At this rate? Probably a local rice farmer..." Ox answered, laughing.

The two started off down the street towards the three large towers at the far end of town. Constructed in the years following the destruction inflicted by Lord Shen, the Towers of the Masters Council were the painstaking attempts at replacing the previous structure of legendary repute.

Ox and Croc crossed the last few bridges along their way to their destination; markets and merchant buildings gradually became barracks and guardhouses.

At their arrival at the citadel complex, the palace guards parted to the sides, kneeling, and the massive interlocked gates creaked open. The two made their way into the stonework courtyard, passing a golden statue of Thundering Rhino, which had been crafted from the melted-down remains of the ancestral peacock throne. It had been a personal tribute by Ox and Croc in memory of their fallen fellow master.

"So what if the messenger was right this time?" Croc said as they came to the bottom of the central tower and started up the internal stairway. "What if we actually do have to face an invasion?"

"Not for me to say. Our priority is the protection of Gongmen." the bovine master answered, unconcerned.

They had reached the tower's zenith, and Ox threw open the stairway doors that led to the wide octagonal space that served as a residence for the masters. The two were in search of the much-loved Magistrate of Gongmen, the mystic known only as Soothsayer.

"Soothsayer!" the ox called out when not seeing the aged goat at her usual quarters in the center of the room. "We've received another message from the imperial council..."

"As expected." came the apparently disembodied response from the far side of the space.

The room was crowded with all manner of decoration, and the ever-waning daylight had resulted in decreased visibility. Searching for the governor of the city, the masters circumvented around the room, evading the columns and gilded statues that had obstructed their view. This effort brought them to the far corner, where the floral designs on the ceiling converged to a point. They'd found her at last.

Hunched over her bowl - as she was so often wont to do - the wise old fortune teller was stuck underneath a frighteningly large cloud of black smoke; it was such that the Kung Fu masters at first thought a fire had broken out. But upon closer inspection, the fumes were emanating solely from the basin at her feet. The flames within were an unnatural purple hue, but they hardly noticed this.

What was obscured in the dark cloud was much more gripping - intoxicatingly so.

"But I fear..." the goat continued at last, knowing her companions had arrived, "that we finally have a warning we cannot refuse to heed."

Soothsayer began drawing her arms back in toward herself again and again, as if she was pulling a rope that wasn't there. All the while, her gaze was fixed into the midst of the parting haze, searching. As the black smoke diffused aside, another color entirely began to overpower the darkening room.

Red.

A thin, spindle-like fractal of crimson vibrance was now clearly separated from the smoke, hovering above the indigo flames. This is what she had been looking for. Having now seen it, the mystic acted quickly, tossing a mysterious white powder into the conflagration, which caused it to crackle and extinguish itself. Then, as if she had commanded it, a rush of wind forced open the nearest balcony door, sweeping away the dark smoke into the direction of the auburn sunset outside.

Having lived with the Soothsayer for years, Ox and Croc had seen quite a few extravagant displays for which the word _magic_ did not quite encompass the feat. But despite all they had seen, what had just taken place in front of them... it was somehow still unbelievable.

"What was it? What did you see?" Croc practically begged.

Soothsayer waved off his question as politely as possible, grabbing her walking stick and pacing to the balcony through the now-open shutter.

While just as curious, Ox knew better than to demand answers that he could not hope to comprehend the meaning of. Instead, he walked up to the goat's side as she stared out over the orange-tinted water that stretched to the horizon. The reptile master joined them, and they waited in silence.

"The gods have blessed me with long life, just as they have cursed me with foresight. Too often have my visions been the forebearers of violence and discord."

The goat stroked her beard, lost in troubled contemplation.

"Whatever you ask of us, we will see it done." Ox assured.

"Certainly, whatever you have seen can be overcome." Croc added in perfect time.

"Your sentiments are appreciated, but what I need... is a messenger. One with wings, preferably."

The martial artists looked at each other.

"Who are we sending a message to?" the reptile questioned.

"Grandmaster Shifu of the Jade Palace."


	20. Strength of Will

_Running._

Sky above, earth below. Time itself sped by with each passing stride, the terrain entirely empty and unending. Tigress was carried onward at full speed by her own efforts, and yet, she couldn't recall what had prompted her into such a determined sprint.

There were no landmarks or details to latch on to, only a blurred existence that nipped at the peripherals of her vision.

_Forward. Forward is all that matters now._

Not lightening her pace, her four limbs strained to keep up; glancing down, she discovered she was in fact running through snow. This was perplexing, for she could feel no hint of winter's chill. Mere moments later, the snowdrifts beneath her paws melted into a swift stream of water, but did not dampen her fur in the slightest. Looking again to her sides, there was still no discernible landscape, only blurred hints of reality.

The stream below began to fill with dead leaves, before freezing to snow once more. Seasons came and went, but she was still running, unmoved by the changeable whims of time.

Raising her head, something at last came into view ahead of her - something _large_. It seemed to somehow be outpacing her, for the blurred figure was threatening to disappear once more into the fogged air.

"No!" she heard herself yell out.

_It cannot elude me!_

Once again summoning a burst of speed, she began to close in, such that she was sure she could be upon whoever, _whatever_ she was chasing with a well-timed pounce. In another few seconds, she committed to a daring leap; her rear limbs recoiled, and then sprung her whole body forth as if launched from the mightiest of catapults.

As she became airborne, time slowed as her senses became more acute. And at last, she could feel something: the brisk air moving over her front paws as she flew forward gracefully, guiding her powerful frame towards the ground.

Tigress' eyes felt as wide as they had ever been, desperate to make out whatever flighty beast that strode just beneath her in the fog. She began to descend, and her claws shot out from her paws, ready to deal a crippling strike.

And then came the sound.

Resounding - eerie and metallurgic in tenor - it came like thick tile chimes on a bracing wind. A plethora of multi-pitched clashes rung in her ears, and for the briefest second, the rainbow - every color imaginable - flashed before her vision.

Silence arrived without warning, and darkness soon after.

One moment flying through the air at unspeakable speeds, Tigress found herself standing on solid ground only an instant later. A much subtler, and more calming sound rang out, akin to a pair of weighty bronze spheres touching together ever-so-slightly; and with that, her vision returned to her in full.

"Master, are you pointing at... me?"

Oogway's outstretched claw did not waver, and nearly every person present within the ceremonial arena of the Jade Palace was now staring directly at the striped Kung Fu master.

"Why of course, Tigress - it is your destiny to be the _Dragon Warrior._ " the tortoise answered.

_What? This isn't right! What is happening?_

"Destiny?" she questioned, awestruck.

The rest of the Furious Five gathered around her, faces full of pride, only adding to her bewilderment.

Oogway smiled at her.

"Many centuries I have awaited this day, but no one is happier to have seen it arrive than your father."

Tigress glanced up to the nearby platform where Shifu stood, beaming as he nodded in her direction.

_Father..._

"Through your actions you shall bring honor, and peace, to us all." the old reptile concluded, folding his talons into a bowing salute.

As everyone present - the multitudes of people - began to bow as well, the tiger felt something uniquely fulfilling swell within her. Whatever it was, it felt right. It felt _good._

Her bliss was disrupted by another flash of darkness, as she immediately found herself transported elsewhere once again.

It was the unmistakable interior of the Jade Palace itself, the Hall of Warriors. The sunlight outside the palace drifted inwards, and all over her body she felt a stiff breeze that carried the pleasant scents of Spring with it. Every detail of the place was just as she had always envisioned it would be on this most auspicious of days. Her fellow masters stood at attention all around the Sacred Moon Pool, and Shifu was now offering her the fabled Dragon Scroll, the key to limitless power.

"Take it, and become the Dragon Warrior, my daughter."

After all this time, there it was: gilded crimson and jade - destiny calling, waiting for her answer.

She didn't hesitate any longer, taking it into her grasp, surprised at how something of such gravitas could feel so light.

As the others looked on, she removed one end of the scroll with ease, and-

"Agh!" she yelled in shock, dropping the now-open cylinder to the ground.

The resulting thunk was much louder than it should have been, sounding instead like a bronzed gong.

The scroll had suddenly become impossibly hot within a fraction of a second, scalding her paws. The wind picked up velocity, and a darkness consumed the entire Hall of Warriors. Everyone else was gone, leaving just her and the Dragon Scroll. She could barely keep up with the string of changes taking place around her, but all of the commotion was superseded by a single prevailing voice.

_You want this so badly, don't you?_

Tigress looked around madly for the source of the voice, but was left to deduce it must be coming from the scroll before her. It had spoken in a manner alien to her comprehension; it was as if it was whispering inside her own head.

"Yes..." she conceded, cautious. "Yes I do."

There was the sound of an odd, quirky brand of laughter, before a dusky form began to seep out from the scroll like a snake. Weaving its way about the floor, it coiled itself upwards to look down on the tiger - illuminating a pair of bright yellow eyes. The thing was shaped like a small dragon of sorts, but was formless, constituted entirely of a fog-like substance of blueish-purple. The laughter dissipated, and an answer came at last.

_You speak as if it's true, but your conflicted soul betrays you. Strong in body, calculating in mind - but vulnerable in spirit..._

An uncomfortably long pause.

_And for that, you are weak!_

Before she could even think to react, the hazed beast attacked, immediately wrapping itself around her neck - it squeezed with crushing force. The dragon continued to speak as it coiled about her, leaning its head to look Tigress directly in the eyes.

_So, Master Tigress fancies herself as the Dragon Warrior of legend? Fool! You would've brought dishonor to yourself and to China - an utter failure!_

Hearing this, she began to fight the coils around her throat even harder, even as her senses began to dim.

_Ah - don't like it when I say that? Then try and prove me wrong!_

The beast tightened its grip on her, making her wince, realizing the futility of the struggle. As it lifted her high up into the furthest rafters of the palace, the eyes of the vaporous entity narrowed in satisfaction.

_Such a shame... but it's no matter. You will be just as powerless as you are now to stop what is coming._

And that was the last thing she heard; the constricting of the beast stole away the last remnants of her sensation, and all was rendered silent and empty for the final time.

* * *

Tigress' digits twitched involuntarily as she jerked awake. She gasped for breath but, realizing she had arisen from the dream, relaxed back upon the cushions of her bed. Moments passed, and the fog clouding her eyes dissipated. The gold-layered wooden ceiling above was shaded in a disappointing grey hue by the first lights of daybreak.

The tiger brought her torso upright and her footpaws touched the floor. As she stretched her limbs, the linens drawn across the windows of her personal suite breathed with the very lightest of winds. Head leaned back and jaw slacked, the vertebrae of her neck relaxed with muted cracks.

Leaving the room and moving down a flight of stairs, she was once more in the same courtyard from the night before; curled over upon himself, Crane was sleeping soundly near the far end of the siheyuan. The morning frost had stiffened the wood beams of the masters' personal palace, becoming a setting starkly withdrawn from her fevered dream. Standing here again, her mind was cursed with the memory of the thought she'd had during the argument with Po the night before.

For the first time in years, she had thought herself more worthy of being the Dragon Warrior than her friend; fleeting as it was, to her this notion was unforgivable. Above all else, this was a desire that still festered somewhere within - a fact that Tigress struggled mightily to reckon with. But could she really blame herself? To be the heaven-anointed defender of justice, the unquestioned paragon of hope for so many people... it had been everything she had trained, fought, and suffered for ever since she had first come to the Jade Palace.

The anger, the frustration, the crushing disappointment of being denied this singular goal... it was an insurmountable pain; a torment so great that it showed her the truth. It had never been about the damn title - pretending it was otherwise was simply the axial and incurable lie she'd told herself.

But even then it didn't matter, for when she looked to him - to that master, that father of hers - there remained only the singular, now-unattainable path to recognition... to _love_. And thus, she was left to chase after something that was no longer meant to be; on the outside she pressed herself to become just as dauntless as ever, but within, every shattered fragment of her being had come to feel wholly and unavailingly wasted.

Standing there in the silence of dawn, with the only sounds splashing out from the serpentine fountain in the courtyard center, Tigress began to mourn what she had become, and the many things that she had left unsaid.

But in time, the tiger began to think of such inner remorse as selfish, and resolved to go elsewhere. Without disturbing the avian master, she walked out of the front doorway of the complex and into the city streets. The day was young, and the only citizens of Khanbaliq she passed were those with jobs requiring them to be awake at that early hour. Most of the leopards were soldiers returning to their barracks after completing the night watch, although others were merely farmers leaving for their famine-strained fields outside the city walls. A lonely team of a blacksmith and his apprentices were striking a white-hot blade in tandem.

Tigress wasn't entirely sure where she was walking to, only determined to cover some distance in order to put her mind on something more mundane. Avoiding the palatial center of town but staying within the boundaries of the rich district, she once again observed the uncannily Chinese architectural program of the buildings there. A modest scholar of history, she was aware that this region had once been under the direct control of past empires and dynasties; but most of these structures were far too modern to be of those bygone eras.

Rounding another empty street corner, one building in particular caught the tiger's attention. It was a single story tall with a wide wooden facade, but this was not particularly interesting - rather, it was the steam that steadily spewed from the general area surrounding it. The sign above the threshold denoted the place as a bathhouse, written in familiar Chinese characters.

Looking into a nearby puddle in the street, she beheld her current likeness. Facial fur had grown messy and unkempt, whiskers too long. The proud white strands that had hugged the upward curvature of her face now drooped towards the ground, weighted and discolored by dirt.

_I don't even recognize myself anymore..._

Minutes later, she found herself entering the main chamber of the bathhouse, immediately faced with a wave of heated air - it was a welcome reprieve from the morning chill. As expected, the area was full of visually obscuring steam, partially from the warmth of the water, but also from the many incense burners that lined the edges of the large pool. The substance being burned was an unusually pink spice perfume, giving a pleasant scent to a place that would otherwise be rank with mildew and mold.

Approaching the edge of the water, Tigress removed the final piece of her attire she had not yet shed - the underwrapping that tightly covered her lower midsection. As she did so, she felt an all-too-familiar pain from her lower ribs, several of which had never healed from the damage they received absorbing the fire from Shen's cannon. It was a permanent reminder of a sacrifice she had made, and a sign that - even in her late twenties - age had begun to catch up with the aggressive feline. She was used to this permanent injury flaring up in the mornings, but on this occasion it only made her keenly aware of her more recently-acquired tail wound, a dull throb at the base of her spine.

Now successfully disrobed, she slid into the water in order to be rid of the inconvenient pains. The effect of the warm liquid all around her was immediate and spectacular, and she could not suppress a relaxed exhale. She wasted no time in submerging her head altogether.

_Finally. Silence... Silence at last._

The dirt, the sweat, the pain - it all fell away into the depths of the pool; every fiber of her fur moved about freely, frictionless. She swam deeper, grazing the super-heated bath stones that lined the bottom. Tigress knew it was fated to be a temporary pleasure, but in that fading instant nothing mattered... no mission, no enemies, no titles. It was beautiful.

Like most beautiful things, it was fleeting. She broke the surface for air. Water cascaded down around her as she rose up; having drifted to the center of the pool, she moved to the nearest edge. Even as the air was heavy with thick steam, the surface of the water itself was clear enough such that she was once more faced with her own reflection.

She felt the usual disillusionment, but all of the sudden there was something else too: Tigress could sense she was not alone. Looking up, she found two dark lilac orbs gazing at her through the steam.

"You."

Her presence now discovered, Yuelun swam closer, revealing herself fully.

"Aww... disappointed to see me? Or just surprised?" the leopardess teased with her usual calculated playfulness.

Tigress showed no reaction but answered quickly, regardless.

"I once fought a psychotic immortal that swung jade razorblades larger than your head. Nothing surprises me anymore."

"How nice..." the spotted cat mocked, eyeing the toned muscular form before her that supported the tiger's claims. "And to think... as I cast your lifeless body into that abyss of a desert, you didn't strike me as anyone of consequence."

Any semblance of indifference was now gone from the striped cat's features.

_So Crane spoke the truth..._

"You were in Xiangyang that night..."

Yuelun lifted herself higher out of the water and came right up towards Tigress, speaking directly to her face.

"Of course I was." The leopardess' fangs gleamed with pride through her smirk. "You think I don't know what brings you here? The _little game_ between my father and you so-called 'masters' - it has been such exquisite entertainment as of late."

A barely-restrained fury seeped from Tigress' eyes; she was hardly even following the other cat's ramblings anymore, rising to be at level height with her.

"You left us to die." she accused, nearly growling.

"You should be thanking me; I could have just slit your throat when you were sleeping like a kitten on the palace floor."

Despite every one of her muscles tensing in preparation for a fight, the tiger master knew this was neither the time nor the place for one. The leopardess' proximity and air of superiority showed she knew it too, and was enjoying the present situation a bit too much. Tigress had heard enough.

"It seems the arrogance of Mongolians knows no bounds - you're no different from your brother."

The leopardess was caught unprepared, recoiling as she turned away from the tiger.

"I am _nothing_ like that pathetic fool!" she hissed, a momentary weakness having been exposed.

The spotted feline realized that she had been striking with a double-edged blade, having underestimated the perceptiveness of the tiger master during their previous meeting.

"Do you think building Chinese palaces, writing and dressing as we do erases centuries of barbarism? Do you think your people have even a _shred_ of legitimacy?"

Yuelun stood up at the edge of the pool, high enough now that her tail cleared the surface; she also had an impressive athletic build, but still markedly less pronounced than the other feline's. Shaking some of the water off, she gave an irritated exhale. For once, she spoke without her conniving tone - instead it sounded decisive, if a bit softer than the leopardess would have liked.

"How highly you Chinese think of yourselves." She turned back to face her striped counterpart. "Do you recall the temple where we first met?"

"How could I forget?" Tigress retorted, unamused and still simmering.

"It is called Fayuan. The Chinese Emperor Taizong dedicated it to the soldiers he lost mercilessly ravaging the Korean kingdoms for three years. Tell me, who were the 'barbarians' then?"

The tiger glared at her. "You think _that_ justifies your people's campaigns against the very same kingdoms?"

"You mistake my meaning." Yuelun shook her head. "I say none of it matters; there is no civilized or uncivilized, only the strong and the weak. You Chinese confuse ambition for arrogance, strength of will for dishonor... and it will be your downfall."

The two became locked in a combative glare.

"We'll see about that, Mongol." Tigress said, tone more glacial than ever before.

Something about this blatant threat seemed to reinvigorate the leopardess' usual temperament, and a wry smile once more came to her face.

"Such conviction... it's utterly stimulating!" she provoked. "Perhaps you'd like to test your skills in combat against my own?"

"As if I'd give you the pleasure."

The spotted cat laughed at the tiger's impassive response.

"You don't seem like the type to back down from a challenge." she accurately observed, at last climbing out of the pool entirely. "Tomorrow - training grounds at sundown."

The Mongolian princess turned and left, bringing with her a resolute confidence - one that Tigress intended to humble.


	21. Moves and Countermoves

Morning dew gripped at wood and stone, the heat of day arriving in the Valley of Peace. Citizens, shop owners, laborers and travelling merchants alike went about their business and professions, wholly unconcerned with the goings-on atop the Jade Mountain. And they were likely the better for it, as nothing of note had transpired there for many a day; the reconstruction of the Jade Palace was nearly complete after the conclusion of the rainy season in southern China.

The glazed brick courtyard of the training arena was mostly devoid of commotion, save for the efforts of those trying to heave the head of the statue of Oogway up the nearby stairs. Near the center of the open space, two of the Jade Palace's revered occupants sat locked in a contest of strategy.

"Your move, master."

Shifu looked over the gameboard, which reflected odds increasingly in the favor of the bright green snake sitting opposite himself. A collective of the reptile's pieces were encroaching upon his all-important general, who was protected by only an advisor and a pawn. His large ears flicked with impatience, and he made a quick move.

Viper rapidly analyzed the red panda's strategic position, smiling at him with a hidden pity. Shifu was notoriously dreadful at board games - but especially at Xiangqi.

"You know, I spoke with Po's father yesterday..." the snake said, slowly pushing forward one of her pieces with her tail.

"Which one?" Shifu asked promptly, in perfect time with his arm that had flown across the board to make his move.

"Mr. Ping, of course; Li Shan left to attend to matters in the Panda Village some time ago." Viper answered, surprised that it hadn't been self-evident.

"And?"

The snake again made her move before speaking in her usual respectful tone.

"Well... he was concerned that his son has been gone too long - that perhaps the mission north has gone awry."

In the distance, Mantis' voice could be overheard as he stood atop the stone head being pushed up the stairs.

"That's it - just a few more steps you guys! Is that all you've got?"

"Easy for you to say!" Monkey said, grunting with exertion along with the other workers. "You're not down here pushing this thing!"

The spectacle of it had distracted Viper from the game-board, and looking down she saw that Shifu had moved once more, prolonging the endgame of the contest.

"The goose is overreacting - the three of them were only expected to return less than a week ago. Any number of reasonable complications could have forestalled them."

The reptile looked over the pieces, deciding how best to delay putting her master in checkmate.

"But certainly they could have sent Crane ahead with a message..." she prodded, having found a rather useless move available and taken it.

Shifu's ear twitched again, hastily pushing a piece in an ill-advised direction.

"Nonsense. That would divide their numbers... make them more vulnerable. They know better than that - Tigress does at least."

Viper surveyed the sunrise in the distance before asking, "Master, may I speak openly on this matter?"

The grandmaster nodded, leaning back from the game momentarily.

"I must admit that I share the same concern. It's not like them to return late; maybe something bad has happened..." she said, sliding a piece across the board halfheartedly.

Shifu sighed, "You speak as if I sent them off to fight an entire country, or slay some great demon. Do you doubt your fellow masters?"

"Of course not," she said almost sorrowfully, "but I just have this feeling... that something has gone amiss - a danger that lies beyond our sight."

The red panda resumed the contest with a move of his own.

"I admire the concern you show for your teammates, Master Viper; it is one of your greatest attributes. But do not allow your compassion to breed fear."

"Yes, master." she conceded, bowing her neck as her forked tongue slid between her fangs.

But as she rose from the respectful gesture, her tail pushed forward a piece for the decisive strategic blow. Shifu's most valuable piece was now boxed in entirely, leaving him vulnerable to the conclusive 'Flying General' move.

"Checkmate."

Shifu frowned as soon as she said this, having just suffered yet another defeat to the snake master.

_May the gods curse this infernal game!_

The red panda longed for the days when he would effortlessly prevail over Po, who had previously held no knowledge of the minutiae of Xiangqi. Although, had he inquired, he would have discovered that Viper was able to match her own father at the game by the age of seven. Between her skill and his own impatience when it came to such things, he never stood a chance.

Shifu's internal vexation was interrupted as Monkey and Mantis ran up to where he was seated.

"Master Shifu." both said in unison with a bowed salute.

"Yes?"

"Someone is coming." Monkey answered, pointing towards the sun.

The snake and red panda rose up at once, and with the other masters watched as a speck in the distance grew larger - a bird of some kind was steadily drawing closer on the horizon. Seeing the approaching figure, the martial artists assumed defensive postures; Shifu slid his ankle underneath the staff that was propped against his chair, swiftly kicking it up into his grasp. With the Jade Palace already lightly defended, the masters couldn't afford to take any chances.

The bird virtually sliced through the air, white streams of draft springing from the tips of its wings. Approaching the top of the Jade Mountain, the avian dipped its flight angle sharply, coming straight at the four masters. Obviously tired from a long journey, the bird didn't have the most graceful landing - it skidded and sputtered as its legs hit the stone bricks of the courtyard. Wings wide to catch air, it slowed to a halt right before where Shifu and his students were still locked in guarded postures.

He was certainly a strange bird, too. His white beak was short and sharp like an eagle's, but the wings and long legs were much more akin to a crane's. A white upper body was neatly contrasted by black thighs and tail feathers; but most distinctive was the plumage of black quills that formed a crest behind his head, a peculiar oddity that had no equal among the birds they'd seen before.

"You're certainly a long ways from home..." Mantis said, breaking the silence.

The others looked at him, but said nothing, for he had merely given voice to what they had all thought.

"Message..." the avian started, still catching his breath, "I bear a message for Grandmaster Shifu of the Jade Palace."

The red panda stepped forward, and the masters relaxed their stances.

"A message from whom?"

Still half-panting, the bird looked directly at the grandmaster.

"From our mutual friend, who sees much."

"I already spent most of my life listening to riddles - so please don't speak in them."

In response, the messenger grabbed a scroll that had been slung around his back, and held it out for Shifu to take; upon it was the unmistakable jade peacock seal of Gongmen City. He'd received such a missive once before.

"I see." he said, taking the scroll.

Shifu spent the next minute or so pacing about, reading the message with a concerned look on his face, as the others could only guess what ill news the dispatch contained. When at last he had finished, he looked straight up to the strange bird in order to question it.

"How old is this message?"

"Less than two days."

The red panda turned back to his students. It was clear they already had many questions.

"What is it?" Viper asked.

"I must... go to see the emperor. At once."

They were all shocked by the statement, but Monkey was the first to speak his mind.

"Hangzhou is hundreds of miles from here - and the palace is already vulnerable as it is!"

Shifu raised a hand to prevent the rest of them from hounding him with similar concerns.

"I am aware of this - but I must go, nonetheless. I have trained you well, and I know the valley is under capable stewardship."

Mantis stepped forward.

"Will you at least tell us _why_ you have to leave so suddenly?" he pleaded.

Shifu knew he owed them an explanation.

"The Soothsayer of Gongmen believes there is a serious threat to China growing along our northern borders... We might be on the precipice of open war with Mongolia."

"Bah - people have been saying that for years!" Monkey said, waving an arm dismissively.

"No - the Soothsayer believes this is legitimate!" Shifu pointed his staff at the simian. "And I trust her judgement above any imperial official."

He wanted to protest further, but Monkey thought better of it, and bowed to his master instead. Seeing no further words to be said, Shifu went back to his task at hand.

"I must leave now - if needed, I _will_ send for you."

The students nodded in understanding.

"And you!" the red panda said, whirling about in the direction of the messenger, "You are swift on the wing - and I am in need your haste."

"As you wish." the avian responded without hesitation, lowering himself so that Shifu could climb upon his back.

As he settled himself atop the exotic-looking bird, he turned back one last time to his fellow masters, and found himself looking at Viper in particular. Forlorn, she gazed back at him with an unsettling sadness; he recalled her words from before, realizing she had been right all along.

_A danger that lies beyond our sight..._

The implications of this thought were lost to Shifu as the avian beneath him launched from up the courtyard with incredible force.

The winds were favorable, and they chased the sunrise east.

* * *

_I can't believe I'm actually doing this._

Tigress stepped forward into the arena, the orange glint of sunset blending right into her fur. The training grounds of Khanbaliq were of a rather rudimentary nature, lacking the auspicious glamour of the official contest venues common in China. The ground was constituted of a loose layer of dusty soil, but the tiger style master reckoned it would suit her needs well enough. The area was in contrast to the dense city that surrounded it in every direction, offering an unobstructed view of the clear sky above, and flanked by taller structures where citizens could be seen meandering about along the balconies and parapets.

In the center of the grounds the Mongolian princess stood, arms crossed, waiting for her - but she was not alone. Drawing closer, Tigress realized that her eyes had not deceived her at the Khan's feast - it truly was the golden cat master, Mei Ling, that stood just to the right of Yuelun. She did not carry the same aloofness in her bearing like the leopardess, but instead was more tentative, watching the approaching tiger with caution.

Tigress knew of Mei Ling, of course; for how could she not? She had been the prized jewel of the prestigious Lee Da Academy, one of the most talked-about masters when the tiger had first been introduced to Kung Fu. Despite this, the two had only met once before at a brief gathering of students from various martial schools, and at a time when the master of tiger style was a mere novice. She surmised that, like Crane, the golden cat was presumably her senior by the better part of a decade; if age had dulled the skills of the brown-furred cat or not, remained to be seen.

In the back of Tigress' mind, questions began to fester about why Mei Ling was in the Mongol capital in the first place; but these quickly fell away amongst the drove of strangeness that seemed to pervade Khanbaliq to its core.

"She arrives at last." Yuelun said as the tiger master joined them.

Mei Ling chose to salute with a bow to show respect to her fellow martial artist, which Tigress returned, more out of subconscious habit than anything else.

"You've been dragged into this madness as well?" the tiger mumbled.

The corner of Mei's mouth curled upwards briefly in response. The Mongolian either had a crafty tongue, or some leverage to dangle over the golden cat's head - probably both, in all likelihood. As for the leopardess, she was eager to test herself against the strength of two Chinese masters in a free-for-all combat of her own design; but she held her tongue, trying to at least project an aura of patience and collectedness in the presence of the two older fighters. Conveniently enough, the striped cat was eager as well, likely just to put the quick-witted princess in her place.

"Let's get this over with."

"That won't do - I haven't even explained the rules yet." Yuelun contended.

" _Rules?_ " Mei Ling asked, not quite annoyed but rapidly getting there.

"But of course! Certainly you've noticed the _circle_ by now..."

The two Kung Fu masters had not, in fact, noticed the wide circle indicated on the ground around themselves; upon looking, they saw such an indentation denoted by small stones in the dirt, but it was an easy thing to miss.

"What's it for?" Mei asked.

"To keep things... _interesting_." Yuelun said with a slight grin. "The rules of this fight are simple: yield or step outside the circle and you lose. Last cat standing wins."

"You _sure_ that's all?" Tigress said with intrusive skepticism.

The leopardess thought for a moment.

"No grabbing of the tail or ears." she concluded.

The other felines quickly nodded in agreement.

The terms were set. It was understood that the fight would begin soon, so the cats went about preparing themselves. Mei withdrew the spear she kept sheathed on her back and began to slowly twirl it about herself, as the Mongol walked back a short distance to where her own double-ended spear was planted into the dirt. All the while, Tigress just stayed where she was, stretching and loosening her limbs.

She once again questioned why she was even doing this, acting like some obedient servant of the Khan's daughter; but immediately she thought again of how it was this same troublesome girl that had left her to die, and her anger committed her to the fight. Her resolve was tempered - she desired nothing less than to humiliate her enemy, and even the revered master of Lee Da would not be allowed to deny her. On some level, the tiger was beginning to enjoy this. There were many concerns, a multitude of uncertainties weighing on her... but fighting? Fighting she could handle just fine.

The three cats were now all within the circle once more, facing each other down. The deep onyx of the Mongol's robes were almost harmonious with the soft red and midnight blue worn by the other two, but the aesthetics of the spectacle they were about to initiate was beyond their thoughts.

"No weapon?" Yuelun asked of Tigress, confused at her unarmed state.

The tiger just stared at her.

_Why use a weapon when you can be one?_

"Suit yourself."

And then there was silence. Stances were lowered, weapons readied, and the eyes of the felines scanned each other with maximal awareness. Content to stick with her rigidly defensive style, Mei Ling refused to make the first move. She had fought the princess once before; the tiger was an entirely unknown quantity - and if the stories were true, she had little chance of besting her. Ultimately, Mei had no interest in winning this fight, but to give anything less than her best effort would be shameful.

Across from the golden cat, Tigress had grown tired of all the forestalling. With a low-pitched growl, she leapt between the other two, prompting them to attack. The tiger master planted a nasty mid-air kick to Mei's jaw before going straight for the Mongol, having to block the shaft of her spear almost immediately. The leopardess seemed to welcome Tigress' challenge, striking with both bladed edges of her weapon in sequence - although these were effortlessly denied by the striped feline.

Mei Ling had been dazed by the initial hit, perhaps because she hadn't been expecting such a spirited strike from her fellow Chinese master. Now that she understood Tigress wouldn't be giving her any such courtesy, she committed herself to not holding back either. Before the tiger could land any good hits on Yuelun, the golden cat thrust herself back at the striped cat, who was now stuck blocking spear strikes from both sides.

Knowing the seriousness of her predicament, and with a careful eye on the boundaries of the circle in the dirt, Tigress knew she needed to get out from between them as soon as possible. Dodging a thrust from the golden cat and ducking under Yuelun's high slash, she recoiled back and landed a double palm strike to the leopardess' chest. The spotted cat flew back a short distance but managed to stay within the boundaries of the circle. As the two of them surged forward once more, Tigress shoulder-rolled out near the edge of the area, content to let the other felines duel for a moment.

The two spear-proficient masters seemed unbelievably well matched; it was only mere seconds before their parries gave way to traded blows. Yuelun lured Mei with a false hack, flipping her weapon around to slice at the golden cat's ankle. Feeling the piercing sting of the blow, the champion of Lee Da struck back by bashing the mid-shaft of her spear straight into the leopardess' face.

The Mongol staggered backwards, warm crimson from her nostrils staining her white maw-fur. Raising a paw to her nose and finding it coated with her own blood, the leopardess was filled with newfound rage.

_That bitch will pay dearly for this._

But before she could re-engage with the brown-furred feline, Yuelun was blindsided by an unbelievably powerful kick to the side of her head, Tigress having returned to the fray. For several moments the princess couldn't even hear on her left side, but refused to let the strike fell her completely. Tigress brushed aside her retaliatory attack with a wrist block, and scored yet another hit at the leopardess' underarm.

But yet again, the tiger style master was denied a singular point of attack as Mei Ling struck at her from behind once more, this time even more eager to settle the score with the striped cat. And thus the fight continued, each combatant thwarting the others with strength and acrobatics in equal measure.

As public displays of aggression are wont to draw prying eyes, just so had arrays of spectators gathered on the overlooking ledges and prows of the surrounding buildings; a panda was now among them. Po had no care for why the fight was happening, as such subtleties were not nearly as interesting as the epic display of martial prowess taking place before his eyes. He did his best to follow each combatant, despite the fact that they all moved with erratic and dizzying agility.

"Yeah!" he blurted out, Tigress having just scored an impressive blow.

As he subconsciously jabbed at the air with his fists in time with the fighting, the panda was oblivious to the elderly gentleman who now stood with him on the ledge of the building.

"A shame that they choose to fight when they have so much in common..." the argali sheep said, pacing up beside Po with the aid of his walking stick.

"Hm? Oh yeah - sure." the bear master answered absentmindedly.

He hadn't turned his eyes away from the arena for even a second. Another burst of fighting below prompted the panda to strike an impressive pose. But his wonderment was to be interrupted.

"You are the one... the great warrior. These lands have not seen your equal, not since Oogway contended with the Deng-Wa Warlords in ages past."

Immediately, Po's cheerful mood was gone, and he turned to the old goat who now possessed his undivided attention. The ongoing fight became a mere afterthought.

"Who are you - and what do you know of Oogway?" he demanded.

For a brief moment the argali looked at the panda in contemplative silence.

"I am called Subutai, shaman of the Khan's court. In another time, the tortoise and I were allied against a mysterious evil - an evil I now fear may rise again."

Po shook his head in frustrated disbelief. "That's impossible, that conflict was over two centuries ago!"

"My kind are gifted with long life, and we see many things that others do not... often before they happen." the shaman answered, the bear glaring at him with mistrust. "Do not act so surprised - you've encountered one of us before, have you not?"

Po nodded slowly, despite his reservations. He should have noticed the similarities sooner.

"But why tell me this? What does this have to do with me?"

Subutai seemed to have not heard this, lifting up some of the panda's chest fur with his staff and revealing the wound there. His gaze studied the Kung Fu master in a manner akin to examining a scroll.

"What a strange life you lead, panda..."

"You didn't answer my question." Po swatted the staff away, annoyed. "Why did you call me _the one_?"

Sighing, the goat outstretched the arm that he had previously kept behind his back, and revealed that he was holding an unusual lotus blossom - one stained with the stark hues of black and white.

"Because I foresaw your arrival here. In his ambition, the Khan wanted to see the future - so I showed it to him." he answered, offering the strange flower to the Dragon Warrior. "But what I still do not know... is what my prophecy was meant to reveal."

The shaman's eyes followed Po's digits eagerly as the panda reached to take the lotus; but what happened next overtook them with iced dread. The very instant Po touched the leaves of the floret, a sudden and unnatural gust of wind rushed over the balcony where the two stood; the delicate petals were whisked away to oblivion. In shock, or just plain disbelief, the shaman stared at his own palm as if nothing had happened.

"What... was that?" Po managed to say, equally unsettled.

"I- I do not know."

Subutai backed away, looking troubled; Po was left with more questions than answers.

Meanwhile, the fight below wore on. Mei Ling lunged forth at Tigress with an overhead slash as she was busy fending off the princess, and the tiger narrowly sidestepped the bladed edge of her weapon. The Jade Palace master countered with a forward leg-sweep that was barely evaded by the golden cat, but nonetheless left her vulnerable. Seizing on the opportunity further, Tigress managed to punch Mei's weapon out of her grasp and successfully disarmed her.

But leaving her back to the leopardess for too long came at a cost, as Yuelun ambushed her from behind. The Mongol pinned the shaft of her weapon against the tiger's throat, trying to choke her. Tigress futilely fought against the superior position of her adversary for a few moments; then she realized the obvious solution. Grabbing Yuelun's arms, she lifted the leopardess upwards like she weighed nothing and threw her forwards overhead.

Mei Ling dodged the falling Mongol and struck at Tigress; a flash of golden brilliance. With a sonic blast that shook the dirt below, Mei's Chi-enhanced punch was strong enough to set the Jade Palace master off of her footing. Fibers and fractals of the gilded energy revolved around the tiger for a brief moment as she skidded backwards, absorbing the attack. The glow dissipated gradually over her striped fur.

"Impressive..." Tigress admitted. "But you've just lost."

Knowing the golden cat had just drained whatever energy she had left, the tiger master pressed the offensive to exploit her weakened state. She vaulted above the Lee Da master, somersaulting through the air and striking downward with terrifying force. It cost Mei everything she had left just to evade the stifling scourge of Tigress' Wushu acrobatics.

And it was a futile effort. As soon as the tiger had hit the dirt, she launched forward again, expertly feeding her inertial momentum into a spin-kick. The move was unavoidable, such that the golden cat was decisively knocked outside the circle, defeated. But as Tigress expected, there was no time to celebrate this partial victory.

Anticipating a slash from behind, she ducked forward to avoid yet another determined ambush from Yuelun. The fur on her neck felt the draft of the leopardess' weapon cutting the air. Tigress flipped around to properly face her opponent. As the Mongol rushed forward with a low thrust of her weapon, the tiger kicked at a downward angle with perfect timing - snapping the spearhead clean off. She quickly got caught up in the moment, unsheathing her claws and reducing the rest of the spear to mere splinters with a single stroke.

Undaunted, Yuelun kicked into the tiger's chest, springing backwards. Flipping in midair, she had unsheathed a pair of daggers before touching the ground. Blood was still flowing from her nostrils; the leopardess hissed provocatively.

Outside the circle, Mei Ling knelt to watch the others; but her attention soon drifted to another Jade Palace master, the avian that had been watching them discreetly all along. From where he perched high atop one of the buildings, their gaze met momentarily - Mei felt a shame she could not define. By now, the fight had kicked up no small amount of dust into the air. Each subsequent breath was accompanied by increasingly weighted soreness. Tigress watched the space between herself and the princess tentatively. Adrenaline, like the daylight, was at last beginning to fade - and replacing it was rage.

Yuelun moved to strike and the combat was renewed. Tigress took a half stride forward and evaded the first of her opponent's knives and caught the leopardess' other wrist, imposing enough force on it to make her drop the blade she held. Pivoting on her back leg, the tiger master tried to hurl the Mongol outside the boundary; but Yuelun dug her own claws into the striped cat's arm to thwart this effort. This, of course, did not make the impact with the ground hurt any less for the princess. Groaning as she lifted herself from the dirt, she looked back at the wrathful tiger.

_There's no winning this..._

But she had also seen the golden cat, still distracted by something above them all. An idea brought a smirk to her face. Reversing her remaining blade in her paw, she rolled to the side and launched the shiv - directly at Mei Ling.

Without hesitation, Tigress dove to the side, deflecting away the dagger headed for the golden cat. Standing up, the look on the Mongol's face assured her she didn't even need to look down. She knew she had stepped out.

"You cheated."

" _Did I?_ " Yuelun said, smiling in an innocent way.

Tigress let out a frustrated exhale as the princess walked away proudly. The grateful look she got from Mei Ling was some small consolation, however.

As the leopardess exited the training grounds into the foyer of one of the overlooking pagodas, she heard a familiar voice.

"Proud of yourself, sister?" Zhenjin asked, descending a nearby stairway. "I hope you do not expect to win on such... _technicalities_ in every fight."

"Ah..." She turned towards the male tiger. "But you see, winning is the only thing that counts; it matters little how it is achieved."

Although he would never admit it outright, Zhenjin was often afraid of his sister. Maybe that was why they fought so much, his fear and her jealousy. Maybe it was because he was just as afraid _for her_ as well.

He sighed, shaking his head.

"Your ambition... it poisons you - just like father. Between the two of you it could be the death of us all."


End file.
